René Vandereycken (born 22 July 1953) is a Belgian football manager and a former player. He was the head coach of the Belgium national team from 1 January 2006 to 7 April 2009.

Quick Facts Personal information, Date of birth ...

René Vandereycken

Vandereycken in 1978
Personal information
Date of birth	(1953-07-22) 22 July 1953 (age 70)
Place of birth	Spalbeek, Belgium
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1971–1974	KSC Hasselt
1974–1981	Club Brugge	233	(63)
1981–1983	Genoa	28	(0)
1983–1986	Anderlecht	94	(13)
1986–1987	Blau-Weiß 1890 Berlin	24	(0)
1987–1989	Gent	41	(1)
International career
1975–1986	Belgium	50	(3)
Managerial career
1989–1993	Gent
1993–1994	Standard Liège
1994–1997	R.W.D. Molenbeek
1997	Anderlecht
2000	Mainz 05
2002–2004	Twente
2004–2005	Genk
2006–2009	Belgium
Medal record Representing  Belgium UEFA European Championship Runner-up 1980 Italy
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Close

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

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

Vandereycken coached 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 Belgium 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 two matches against Bosnia in World Cup qualifying.^[1][2]