Erwin Vandenbergh
Erwin Vandenbergh ( born January 26, 1959 in Ramsel ) is a retired Belgian footballer.
The center forward Vanden Bergh began his career in 1977 at Lierse SK. Quickly, the young striker played in the Belgian national team, and was nominated by coach Guy Thys for the European Football Championship 1980 in Italy. This EM tournament the most successful period of Belgian football was heralded and Vandenbergh was next to the goalkeeper Jean -Marie Pfaff and his colleague Jan Ceulemans striker one of the protagonists of the recovery of Belgian football and was voted 1981 Footballer of the Year Belgium.
He was also in the squad for the FIFA World Cup in Spain in 1982 and scored the 1-0 winning goal for the surprising victory of the Belgians in the opening match against world champions Argentina. Belgium was eliminated in the second round of the tournament. After the tournament Vandenbergh joined the Belgian tradition club RSC Anderlecht. In the European Football Championship in 1984 in France, he missed his team's semi-final by a 2:3 defeat in the last group match against Denmark.
The Football World Cup 1986 in Mexico was for Belgium with the fourth most successful tournament in its history. However, Erwin Vandenbergh was injured in the first group match against hosts Mexico, and the tournament was thus already finished for him. Previously, he had scored in the first half, the 1:2 goal back for the Belgians. For the rest of the tournament he was replaced by Nico Claesen in the middle. For Claesen the violation Vanden Bergh was the breakthrough in the Belgian national team.
After the 1986 World Cup Vandenbergh left Anderlecht and played until 1990 in the French first division with OSC Lille. From 1990 to 1994 he was at KAA Gent under contract. He finished his career in 1995 at FC Brussels. Vandenbergh was six times Belgian scorer (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1991 ). In 1981 he was also European scorer (39 goals). He is still the only Belgian who was allowed to receive this award.
His son Kevin Vandenbergh is also a successful football player.
- National football team (Belgium )
- Born in 1959
- Man
- Belgian
- UEFA Europa League winners