Belgium's golden generation is giving way to the rejuvenation process

2023-06-15 17:47:00

Apart from Olympic gold in 1920, Belgium’s national football team has not won any major titles – although this millennium has repeatedly received advance praise and has meanwhile also been number one in the FIFA world rankings. The golden generation, which was stopped at the 2018 World Cup in the semi-finals by eventual champion France, has passed its zenith. A rejuvenation process is underway under current team boss Domenico Tedesco (37).

The German-Italian has reduced the average age from 31.5 years (under his predecessor Roberto Martinez 2022) to 26.0, which corresponds exactly to the structure of tomorrow’s opponent Austria.

Eden Hazard (32), who has agreed to terminate his contract after a disappointing and injury-ridden spell with Real Madrid, Toby Alderweireld (34), Axel Witsel (34), Dries Mertens (36) and Thomas Vermaelen (37) do not play Rolle (more), the market value of the squad, which had temporarily approached the billion mark, has fallen to 387.7 million. Austria’s squad brings it to 295.1 million in comparison.

After the absence of Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne, others are in the front row: for example Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (45 million), Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku ( 40 million) or midfielder Youri Tielemans (30 million), who remains as a signing from Aston Villa of the English Premier League after being relegated with Leicester.

Eden Hazard will still be in the spotlight on Saturday (8.45 p.m., ORF 1) at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels and will officially say goodbye after retiring from the national team after the early World Cup 2022 in Qatar (only third in the group behind Morocco and Croatia). become.

The arena, which can hold almost 50,000 spectators, is sold out, and 1,200 red-white-red fans will also be there. “I’m happy to see the Belgian supporters again. I’m one of them now – a proud Red Devils fan,” said the veteran, who had scored 33 goals in 126 international appearances.

Successful reboot

Now the wild youngsters around Aster Vranckx (20/AC Milan), Johan Bakayoko (20/PSV Eindhoven), Jeremy Doku (21/Stade Rennes) and Ameen Al-Dakhil (21/Burnley) are in the starting blocks. The upheaval appears to be going fairly smoothly, judging by the bare results.

Tedesco got off to a dream start: Belgium defeated Sweden’s team, who will be visiting Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium on Tuesday (8:45 p.m., Servus TV), 3-0 away in the current European Championship qualifier (March 24). Incidentally, Lukaku scored three goals in the variable 4-1-3-2 system back then.

In the subsequent test in Cologne (March 28), Yannick Carrasco, Lukaku and De Bruyne scored a 3-2 win over Germany. That’s not the only reason why Austria’s national team, which hasn’t beaten a top ten nation since the 1-0 win in Sweden on October 9, 1996, has been warned.

However, ÖFB sports director Peter Schöttel is not lacking in confidence: “I don’t think the Belgians like playing against us. We are well positioned with our aggressive, intensive style of play. And: Kevin De Bruyne cannot replace them on an equal footing.” In the red-white-red squad, there are also two slightly injured players in Kevin Danso and Marcel Sabitzer.