Michel Verschueren, kingpin of the RSC Anderlecht football club for 23 years between 1980 and 2003, as manager, died overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday at the age of 91, his son Michael confirmed on Wednesday morning to the Belga agency. “My father died during the night at the Moutershof care center in Wolvertem, where he resided.”
Born March 17, 1931 in Boortmeerbeek, Flemish Brabant, Michel Verschueren studied physical education at the Catholic University of Louvain. He had a modest playing career at KRC Boortmeerbeek, but it was in Aalst that he really started his football career.
In 1957, Michel Verschueren, aged 26, was hired as a physical trainer at Eendracht Alost, which had just moved up to D2. The club was promoted to D1 in 1960. During a home game against Standard in November 1961, the referee (Walloon) Arthur Blavier expelled several players from Aalst. Verschueren (and with him all of Aalst) does not accept it and incidents occur. The physical coach will be banned from Belgian land for a year.
It was in 1963 that Michel Verschueren arrived at Parc Astrid. Albert Roosens, the president of Anderlecht, attracts him to Sporting where he will be a physical trainer for Paul Van Himst’s team then trained by Pierre Sinibaldi. She would win five league titles (1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968) and her first Belgian Cup (1965).
He left Anderlecht in 1969, following coach Norberto Höfling to Daring. Arrived as a physical trainer, Verschueren did not take long to become manager of the club chaired by Jean-Baptiste L’Ecluse which would become RWDM (Racing White Daring de Molenbeek) in 1973. Two years later, the RWDM of Maurice Martens, Johan Boskamp, Benny Nielsen and other Nico De Bree were crowned Belgian champions. Verschueren managed to lure Paul Van Himst to the Machtens stadium the following season.
“Mister Michel” returned through the front door to Anderlecht in 1980, attracted by the president Constant Vanden Stock. It’s the start of a 23-year history with the country’s most successful club.
During this period, Sporting won 11 of its 34 league titles (1981, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2003-04), 3 of its 9 Belgian Cups (1988, 1989, 1994) a UEFA Cup (1983) and played in two other European finals: the UEFA Cup (1984) and the Cup Winners’ Cup (1990) and played in the semi-finals of the Champions Clubs’ Cup in 1982 and 1986.
The 1980s also saw Sporting replace the Emile Versé stadium with the Constant Vanden Stock stadium, which inaugurated the boxes in Belgium, the construction of which was completed in 1991.
Michel Verschueren was manager of Sporting in 1995, at the time of the Bosman shutdown, which shook all of European football.
Alain Courtois was appointed as his successor in January 2002, but the former secretary general of the Belgian Union, who initially collaborated with the “Silver Fox”, left his post in October 2002. It was finally in 2003 that Michel Verschueren gives up, at 72, his managerial chair to Herman Van Holsbeeck.
Verschueren then joined the management committee of the RSCA and took charge of the “Saint-Guidon”, the restaurant at the Anderlecht stadium.
After his managerial career, he entered politics, running on the Open VLD lists in the 2004 Chamber elections, but he was not elected.
Michel Verschueren, who fractured his knee in a car accident during the summer, confided in a long interview with DH last weekend. He was the father of Michael Verschueren, who was also very active in the management of the RSCA, occupying the position of CEO for a time.