Eric Gerets

He started his playing career as an amateur for his local team AA Rekem, before achieving success with

As a coach, Gerets is best known for his advocacy of systems thinking. He is one of six managers – along with José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Giovanni Trapattoni, Tomislav Ivić and Ernst Happel – to have won top domestic league championships in at least four countries.

Club career

Gerets began his career playing for amateur side AA Rekem before joining then titleholders

Gerets was an offensively-minded right back, known for his stamina, tactical discipline, grit and mental toughness. He was also known for long distance throw-ins.

He is the third-most capped player for the Belgium national team, with 86 appearances and two goals.

Standard Liège

In the 1980s, a new generation of players emerged at Standard. Noted manager

In 1985, Gerets joined PSV playing together with

In 1990, Bobby Robson was appointed as Hiddink's successor. Under Robson, Gerets won another two titles with PSV then he retired at the end of the 1991–1992 season at the age of 37.

International career

Gerets registered 86 caps for the Belgium national team. He made his debut for the squad in 1975, and played at four major tournaments: the 1980 European Championship, 1982 World Cup, 1986 World Cup, and 1990 World Cup.

In 1980, Gerets played in his first European Championship in Italy. He scored the opening goal in a 2–1 win against Spain which ensured Belgium qualified as group winners. The tournament is remembered for the inspired performance of the offensively-minded Belgium (around rising stars such as Jan Ceulemans, Eric Gerets, Jean-Marie Pfaff and Erwin Vandenbergh) who unexpectedly reached the final, only losing to West Germany (1–2) by a Hrubesch goal two minutes from time.

At the 1982 World Cup, Belgium, captained by Gerets, recorded one of their most famous victories with a 1–0 win over defending champions Argentina in the first game of the tournament held at Camp Nou with a goal by Erwin Vandenbergh, and an excellent defensive display to hold off a young Diego Maradona.

Four years later, they achieved their best World Cup run at that time in 1986 when they placed fourth under command of players like Jan Ceulemans, Jean-Marie Pfaff and captain Gerets. Belgium surprisingly won against favourites the Soviet Union with stars such as Igor Belanov and Rinat Dasayev (3–4) after extra time. Belgium also beat Spain on penalties, but they lost to eventual champions Argentina in the semi-final (0–2), inspired by Maradona. Despite their defeat, Belgium would end up in fourth place – their best finish in World Cup competition until it was surpassed in 2018 when they reached third place.

Gerets would also captain his nation to the

International goals

Scores and results list Belgium's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	15 June 1980	Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan	Spain	1–0	2–1	Euro 1980
2.	14 October 1986	Stade Municipal, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1–0	6–0	Euro 1988 qualifier

Managerial career

As a manager, Gerets worked successively for RFC Liège, Lierse, Club Brugge, PSV, 1. FC Kaiserslautern and VfL Wolfsburg before joining Galatasaray at the end of the 2004–05 season. In the 1996–97 season, he won the Belgian championships with Lierse, reprising the feat in the season 1998–99 with Club Brugge. He also won the Dutch championships twice (1999–2000 and 2000–01) with PSV. In the 2005–06 season, Gerets won the Turkish Premier Super League with Galatasaray. In May 2007, he left the club, and on 25 September became Marseille's coach.

In his first year with Marseille in 2007, he managed to get the team from the bottom of the league up to finish their 2007–08 season in third place. On 29 April 2009, he confirmed that he would not be in charge of Marseille after the summer when his contract expired.

Gerets departed Lekhwiya and became the head coach of the United Arab Emirates team Al Jazira Club on 20 May 2014.^[9]

Managerial statistics

Honours

Club

Standard Liège^[10]

• Belgian First Division: 1981–82, 1982–83
• Belgian Cup: 1980–81
• Belgian Super Cup: 1981
• Belgian League Cup: 1975
• runners-up
  )
• Intertoto Cup Group Winners: 1980,^[11] 1982^[12]

PSV^[13]

• Eredivisie: 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1990–91, 1991–92
• KNVB Cup: 1987–88, 1988–89 1989–90
• winners
  )

International

Belgium

• runners-up)^[14]
• FIFA World Cup: 1986 (fourth place)^[15]
• Belgian Sports Merit Award: 1980^[16]

Individual

• Belgian Golden Shoe: 1982^[17]
• Bronze Shoe: 1981^[18]
• Ballon d'Or nominations: 1982,^[19] 1983^[20]
• Don Balón World Cup All-Star team: 1982^[21]
• Onze de Onze:^[22] 1982, 1983, 1988
• France Football + La Gazzetta dello Sport World Cup All-Star team: 1986^[23]
• Belgian Golden Shoe of the 20th Century 8th place: 1995^[24]
• Voetbal International's 50 World Stars by Raf Willems: 1999^[25]
• Platina 11 (Best Team in 50 Years Golden Shoe Winners): 2003^[26]
• UEFA Jubilee Poll (2004): #81^[27]
• The Best Golden Shoe Team Ever: 2011^[28]
• RBFA 125 Years Icons Team: 2020^[29]
• AD The Best PSV Team Ever: 2020^[30]
• IFFHS All Time Belgium Dream Team: 2021^[31]

Manager

Lierse SK^[32]

• Belgian First Division: 1996–97

Club Brugge^[33]

• Belgian First Division: 1997–98
• Belgian Super Cup: 1998

PSV^[13]

• Eredivisie: 1999–2000, 2000–01
• Johan Cruyff Shield: 2000, 2001

Galatasaray^[34]

• Süper Lig: 2005–06

Al Hilal SFC^[35]

• 2009–10
• Saudi Crown Prince Cup: 2010

Morocco^[36]

• 2012

Lekhwiya^[37]

• Qatar Stars League: 2013–14
• Crown Prince Cup: 2013

• Belgian Professional Manager of the Year: 1996–97, 1997–98^[35]
• Ligue 1 Manager of the Year: 2008–09^[35]
• Raymond Goethals award: 2011^[38]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eric Gerets.

• Eric Gerets – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Eric Gerets – UEFA competition record (archive) 
• Eric Gerets at the Royal Belgian Football Association
• CV Eric Gerets