René Vandereycken


René Vandereycken is a Belgian football manager and a former player. He was the head coach of the Belgian national team from 1 January 2006 to 7 April 2009.

Club career

Vandereycken was born in Spalbeek. He played for Club Brugge, Genoa and Anderlecht.

International career

As a player, he got 50 caps and scored 3 goals for the national team, and represented Belgium at the Euro 1980, in the final of which he scored a penalty.

Coaching career

He used to coach FC Twente as well as R.S.C. Anderlecht for some months and was fired by K.R.C. Genk in June 2005 after he managed to qualify the team for the UEFA Cup. The other teams he managed were Gent, Standard, RWDM and Mainz 05. Vandereycken is known to like the defensive play and to be a tactician.
He was the head coach of the Belgian national team from January 2006 to April 2009. During this time, he was subject to a lot of criticism in the press for his tactical decisions. He was sacked on 7 April 2009 after not managing to get any points from 2 matches against Bosnia in World Cup qualifying.