Roberto Martinez will stand down as Belgium head coach following their agonising early exit from the World Cup in Qatar.
The much-fancied Red Devils - ranked as the second-best team on the planet by Fifa - failed to make it out of the group stage of the global tournament for the first time since 1998 after a frustrating stalemate with Croatia in Al Rayyan on Thursday.
That costly draw - which saw Romelu Lukaku miss a number of great second-half chances to put his country into the last-16 - followed a damaging 2-0 loss to eventual Group F winners Morocco, with Belgium having opened their campaign with a thoroughly undeserved 1-0 defeat of plucky Canada.
Such a failure is likely to signal a shift away from Belgium’s much-hyped golden generation, with Martinez confirming his own departure shortly after the full-time whistle against Croatia.
He said his decision had already been made before the tournament began regardless of his side’s progress, bringing to an end a six-year spell in charge that saw them finish third at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and also reach the quarter-finals of Euro 2020 last summer.
"This was my last game as coach of the national team. That's emotional," said former Wigan, Swansea and Everton manager Martinez, who was hired as the surprise choice to succeed Marc Wilmots after a disappointing Euro 2016.
"I can't go on. I said goodbye to the players and staff. I was going to stop anyway - whatever happened.
"Even if we had become world champions. I made that decision before the World Cup."
Martinez was out of contract after the World Cup and had originally been expected to agree terms on a lucrative extension after months of talks with the Royal Belgian Football Association.
However, he has now made the decision to step away and believes his players can hold their heads high with no regrets despite a woeful tournament.
"Today we were ourselves again. It is never easy to win a match at a World Cup. In that first match against Canada we won, but we weren't ourselves,” he said. “We deservedly lost that second match against Morocco. We weren't ready.
"Today we created a lot of chances, so no, I have no regrets. We can leave the World Cup with our heads held high."
Asked if this was also the end for Belgium’s golden generation, he repled: “Players like (Youri) Tielemans, (Amadou) Onana, (Jeremy) Doku ... the golden generation have achieved something that should excite future generations. That legacy lives on, and they must continue to set high standards."
