Henri Coppens

Henri Louis François Coppens, mostly Rik Coppens, ( born April 29, 1930 in Antwerp ) is a former Belgian football player and coach. The trained striker was considered an excellent dribbler and extremely goal threat.

Club career

Coppens played in his club career especially for Beerschot VAC, the later with Germinal Ekeren to Germinal Beerschot merged. He was born in 1952, 1953 and 1955, top scorer in the First Division in 1954 and won the first Belgian Golden Shoe. After his departure from Beerschot he continued his career from 1961 to 1970 continued at smaller clubs.

In the Belgian national Coppens played 1949-1959 47 times, scoring 21 goals - ten of them in six games against the Netherlands. He participated in the 1954 World Cup, where he scored a goal in the 4-4 draw with England, Belgium, but was eliminated in the first round.

Coaching career

Coppens coached the then first division Berchem Sport, his original club Beerschot VAC and 1981/82 FC Bruges. A title he could win with any of the three clubs.

Others

• Henri Coppens was often confused with his team-mate Hendrik Coppens, who came between 1945 and 1949 to 19 matches and in almost two decades came to XXX league games for the RFC / KFC Malinois.
• He is considered the inventor of the " two-man penalty kick ": He ran in 1957 in the play " Belgium - Iceland " the penalty, but did not shoot, but passed the ball to first teammate André Piters of which he him again right in front of the gate got back, and then from close range to shoot the target.