The Belgian national football team officially represents Belgium in men's international football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded by the Belgian team's supervising body, the Royal Belgian Football Association. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, from 1982 to 2002 and again from 2014 onwards, have alternated with mostly unsuccessful qualification rounds. Most of Belgium's home matches are played at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.
Koninklijke Lierse Sportkring, often simply known as Lierse, was a Belgian professional football club from the city of Lier in the Antwerp province. Lierse have won four championship titles and two Belgian Cups. Lierse was one of the six Belgian clubs to have played in the UEFA Champions League group stage, the other being Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Genk, Standard Liège and KAA Gent.
The Belgian First Division A, or Belgian Pro League since the 2015–16 season, is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since 2020–21 season, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Belgian First Division B. Seasons run from early August to late April, with teams playing 34 matches each in the regular season, and then entering play-offs I or play-offs II according to their position in the regular season. Play-offs I are contested by the top-four clubs in the regular season, with each club playing each other twice. Play-offs II are contested by teams ranked 5 to 8 in the regular season, divided in four groups of four teams playing each other once. The team finishing in 18th place is relegated directly. However, the 17th place will battle for promotion-relegation play-off against 2nd place of Belgian First Division B.
Clifford Sydney Bastin was an English footballer who played as a winger for Exeter City and Arsenal football club. He also played for the England national football team. Bastin is Arsenal's third-highest goalscorer of all time.
Paul Van Himst is a Belgian former football forward and a football manager. Now retired, he still supports R.S.C. Anderlecht, his former team.
Eric Van Meir is a former Belgian football defender, and until March 2017 was the head coach of Lierse playing in the Belgian First Division B. His former clubs include Lierse, Charleroi and Standard Liège. Van Meir also played for Belgium and was in the squad for the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cups and also for the Euro 2000 but played only a few matches.
Étienne Mattler was a French international footballer, nicknamed Le Lion de Belfort.
Edmond Delfour was a French international footballer who played as a midfielder, before later becoming a manager.
James Brown was a Scottish American soccer player who played for the United States men's national soccer team at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, scoring the only goal of the American team in their 6–1 semi-final loss to Argentina. He began his career in the American Soccer League before moving to England and then Scotland. After retiring from playing, he coached at the youth, senior amateur, and professional levels. He was inducted into the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1986.
Aleksandar "Tirke" Tirnanić was a Yugoslav football player and manager.
Romelu Menama Lukaku Bolingoli is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Inter Milan and the Belgium national team.
Philibert Smellinckx was a Belgian footballer born 17 January 1911 in Saint-Gilles, Brussels (Belgium), died 8 April 1977.
Félix Welkenhuysen was a Belgian footballer, born 12 December 1908 in Saint-Gilles (Belgium), died 20 April 1980.
The 1960–61 season was the 58th season of competitive football in Belgium. Standard Liège won their second Division I title. K Lierse SK entered the 1960–61 European Champion Clubs' Cup as Belgian title holder and RU Saint-Gilloise entered the 1960–61 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The European Cup Winners' Cup was first played this season but no Belgian club participated since the Belgian Cup had not been played since 1955–56. The Belgium national football team started their qualifying campaign for the 1962 FIFA World Cup by 3 losses and were thus already eliminated at the end of the season with yet one match to be played.
Leander Dendoncker is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as either a defender or defensive midfielder for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers and Belgium national team.
Belgium have appeared in the finals tournament of the FIFA World Cup on 13 occasions, the first being at the first FIFA World Cup in 1930 where they finished in 11th place. The inaugural FIFA World Cup final was officiated by Belgian referee John Langenus.
This article lists various team and individual football records in relation to the Belgian national football team. The page currently shows the records as of 9 September 2020.
More than 2,000 goals have been scored in the 21 editions of the FIFA World Cup final tournaments, not counting penalties scored during shoot-outs. Since the first goal scored by French player Lucien Laurent at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, more than 1,250 footballers have scored goals in the World Cup final tournaments, of whom just 97 have scored five or more.
