Dries Mertens
Mertens ( 2011)
Dries Mertens [ dris mɛrtə ( n ) s] ( born May 6, 1987 in Leuven ) is a Belgian footballer who plays for the Italian first division club SSC Napoli is since the 2013/14 season under contract and is active in the Belgian national team.
Career
In the club
Mertens played in youth among others for the top Belgian club RSC Anderlecht, before he moved to the youth department of KAA Gent. After he was discharged to the 2005/06 season in the professional squad, the KAA management opted for a loan with the striker talent. So it took Mertens unterklassigen club Eendracht Aalst. After first competitive appearances and goals he should return a year later. But the Ghent decided to re- lending, so that the attacker was transferred to the Dutch club AGOVV Apeldoorn. Despite a modest goal tally to Apeldoorn secured for 2006/ 07 the services of striker and signed him permanently. This scored fifteen goals in the 2007/ 08 season. In the following year, Mertens scored goals regularly and became the captain of Apeldoorn.
In summer 2009, undertook the FC Utrecht Mertens. There he spent two years as a regular player and was able to qualify in his first season with Utrecht for the Europa League, who retired from the team in the group stage. For the 2011/12 season Mertens moved together with his teammate Kevin Strootman for PSV Eindhoven. There he belonged directly to the starting eleven and scored early in the season against Excelsior Rotterdam and three against Roda JC Kerkrade four goals in a game. Throughout the season, he came on as 21 hits and was the fourth best scorer in the league. At the end of the season he was with the PSV in third place and won 3-0 against Heracles Almelo the KNVB Cup, where he scored the 2-0.
For the 2013/14 season Mertens moved to Italy for Napoli under Rafael Benítez.
In the National Team
In 2004, Mertens played four friendly matches for the Belgian U- 17th Six years later he was called into the squad for the first time the senior team for the qualifying matches for Euro 2012 against Kazakhstan and Austria, but had to cancel due to injuries. At the beginning of 2011, he finally made his debut in a friendly against Finland, when he came on in the 58th minute for Nacer Chadli. As a result, he was also in the European Championship qualifier to first duty stakes, abolished them as third in the table but did not and remained well without any scoring. In a test match shortly before the 2012 European Championship against England, he pushed the opponent's defender Gary Cahill with such an incredible force in the goalkeeper Joe Hart into it, that this failed due to a duplicate jaw fracture for the European Championship. In August of the year in a 4-2 friendly win against the Netherlands, he scored his first international goal for interim compensation 2:2.
Achievements
- Talent of the Year of the Jupiler League ( 1): 2009
- KNVB Cup (1 ): 2012