Axel Witsel

Witsel ( 2012)

Axel Witsel Thomas ( born January 12, 1989 in Liège ) is a Belgian footballer martiniquischer origin, which is currently before the Russian Premjer League club Zenit St Petersburg under contract and is active in the Belgian national team.

2.1 club
2.2 Individual Awards

Career

In the club

Standard Liege (2006-2011)

Witsel has already played in the youth field for Standard Liège on 17 September 2006 and gave his debut against FC Brussels when he came on in the 89th minute for Steven Defour. In the same year he was defeated with Liège in the Belgian Cup final to FC Bruges. In the 2007 /08 season he made together with Steven Defour, Marouane Fellaini and the middle of Liège and was first Belgian champion. In addition, he was the best player in the Belgian league awarded the Golden Boot and was elected Belgian young player of the year. Go to the top of the 2008/09 season he also won the Belgian Supercup with Liege and could consequently - despite the departure of Fellaini to Everton - defend the championship title. This Witsel transformed in playoff against RSC Anderlecht a penalty and thus scored the game-winning goal for 1-0 victory. In the same meeting on 30 August 2009, he broke his opponent during the game Marcin Wasilewski with a foul, the right tibia and fibula. He was then locked by the Belgian Association for eight games and also punished with a fine. Later in the season he landed with Liege in mid-table and could not even as reigning champions qualify for the UEFA Europa League. The 2010/11 season finally represents his last at Standard Liege and he was with the team on points behind the KRC Genk runner-up. For this he won a few days later in the season finale in the final against KVC Westerlo Belgian Cup.

Benfica (2011-2012)

For the 2011/12 season Witsel moved to Portugal to Benfica and there wrote a contract for five years. In Portugal, he quickly was a member of the starting eleven and shot against Sporting Braga his first league goal. At the end of the season was the team runner-up and also penetrated into the Champions League quarter- finals, where they failed the eventual winner at Chelsea. Nevertheless, you could end the season Taça da Liga win the Portuguese League Cup.

Zenit St. Petersburg ( since 2012 )

3 September 2012 Witsel joined the Russian first division club Zenit St Petersburg. He signed a five-year contract and received the shirt number 28 This transfer cost the club 40 million euros transfer fee.

In the National Team

Witsel went through various youth national teams. With the Belgian U-21 national team, he then took part in the 2007 European Championship in the Netherlands and failed there in the semifinals of the Serbs. The following year he came to his first stakes in the senior team and even scored a goal directly on his debut in a friendly against Morocco. Then he came both in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and EURO 2012 for use; where he scored both goals in a 2-0 victory against Austria. Still, he could win with Belgium never more than four games and therefore missed the part in both tournaments.