Belgium is not the biggest of countries, but that hasn't stopped it from producing some top players over the years.
From the years before the Second World War, to the first and second Belgian 'Golden Generations', our list takes a good look at the finest footballing talent ever to emerge from the land of chocolate and Tintin.
Let's jump right on in, shall we?
Club Brugge’s standout performer in their 1978 European Cup final defeat to Liverpool, midfielder Julien Cools captained Belgium to the final of the 1980 European Championship.
Capped 35 times overall, Cools won three straight Belgian top-flight titles with Brugge between 1976 and 1978, doing the double in the 1976/77 season.
An indefatigable defensive midfielder and a penalty expert – converting 48 out of a possible 53 from the spot – Timmy Simons was a Belgium regular for much of the early 21st century.
Winner of the 2002 Belgian Golden Shoe as the best player in the nation’s top flight, Simons won four titles with Brugge – either side of helping PSV to three in a row over the border in the Netherlands.
Belgium’s foremost marksman of the early 21st century, Wesley Sonck fired Genk to the 2001/02 Pro League title with a division-high 30 goals.
Averaging almost a goal every other game in his 55 international caps, the striker featured at the 2002 World Cup – where he found the net in a 3-2 win over Russia which clinched his country’s place in the last 16.
A key member of the Belgium team which finished as Euro 1980 runners-up – scoring from the spot in the 2-1 final loss against West Germany – Rene Vandereycken was an accomplished midfielder who enjoyed a decorated career.
Also a fourth-placed finisher at the 1986 World Cup, Vandereycken won multiple Belgian titles with both Brugge and Anderlecht and reached the European Cup final with the former.
An uncompromising centre-half, the veritably towering Daniel Van Buyten became the first Belgian player to lift the Champions League when he did so as part of a 2012/13 treble with Bayern Munich.
Part of Belgium’s squads for the 2002 and 2014 World Cups – the only two tournaments for which the Red Devils qualified during his international career – Van Buyten scored more than 60 goals for club and country.
Distinctively afroed, the versatile Axel Witsel showed his quality in various midfield roles as well as at centre-back.
A trophy winner in Belgium, Russia, Portugal and Germany, Witsel earned his first of more than 100 caps in 2008 and helped his country to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup – where they ultimately finished third.
Injuries stopped Thomas Vermaelen from having quite the career he ought to have had, but the former Arsenal, Barcelona and Ajax man was a top-class centre-back in his prime.
Dubbed the ‘Verminator’ by Gunners fans for his dominant defensive performances, the FA Cup winner – who was also adept at left-back – made the 2009/10 PFA Team of the Year and earned 85 caps for his country.
Right up there with Belgium’s finest defenders, Walter Meeuws starred at the heart of the back four which reached the Euro 1980 final.
Capped 46 times in total – also appearing at the 1982 World Cup – Meeuws won league titles with Brugge, Standard Liege and Ajax and later briefly coached the Belgian national team.
A goalscoring midfielder who netted the best part of 200 times over the course of his career, Marc Wilmots was one of Belgium’s best players of the 90s.
Starring most notably for Standard Liege and Schalke – helping the latter to 1996/97 UEFA Cup glory – Wilmots – who managed the national team from 2012 to 2016 – featured at the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cups, as well as Euro 2000, which Belgium co-hosted with the Netherlands.
Massively successful with Brugge and Anderlecht, centre-forward Marc Degryse was named Belgian Professional Footballer of the Year on four occasions – the first in 1988, the last in 2000.
In 63 international outings, Degryse – who helped Sheffield Wednesday avoid relegation from the Premier League in 1995/96 – scored 23 goals, representing – and finding the net for – the Red Devils at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups.
One of the very few players ever to take to the pitch in glasses, Armand Joseph ‘Jef’ Jurion was capped 64 times by Belgium during the 50s and 60s.
A technically gifted playmaker, Jurion spent the majority of his career at Anderlecht – where he won nine top-flight titles – and placed fifth in the 1962 Ballon d’Or voting.
Among Europe’s top right-backs in his prime, Eric Gerets played an integral part in Belgium’s first ‘Golden Generation’.
A Euro 1980 runner-up and 1986 World Cup semi-finalist, Gerets received Ballon d’Or nominations in 1982 and 1983 – when he won back-to-back titles with Anderlecht – and captained PSV to the treble in 1987/88.
All midfielders should be six-foot-six tall: it’s so much more fun – and Marouane Fellaini is testament to that.
The versatile big man with the suitably big hair caused carnage at his peak, racking up over 100 Premier League appearances for both Manchester United and Everton – and notching 18 goals in 87 Belgium caps, collecting a third-place medal at the 2018 World Cup.
A legendary winger who was absolutely instrumental to Anderlecht’s sustained success during the 70s – 1975/76 Cup Winners’ Cup victory being the highlight – Francos Van der Elst was an exceptional dribbler with a strong eye for goal, top-scoring in the Belgian top flight in 1976/77.
One of the main men in Belgium’s Euro 1980 runners-up campaign, Van der Elst was nominated for the 1978 Ballon d’Or and later excelled in England for West Ham.
No relation of his very near namesake, Franky Van der Elst was a fine defensive midfielder named in Pele’s FIFA 100 list of the world’s 125 greatest living footballers in 2004.
Spending most of his career at Brugge – where he won five league titles and did the double in 1995/96 – Van der Elst represented Belgium on 86 occasions, playing at four World Cups and finishing fourth in 1986.
Belgium’s number one at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, being recognised as the goalkeeper of the tournament at the latter, Jean-Marie Pfaff was known for producing spectacular stops.
A Belgian champion with his first club, Beveren, Pfaff moved on to Bayern Munich in 1982 and starred in three successive Bundesliga title triumphs.
An enduring rock at the back who was voted Tottenham’s 2015/16 Player of the Year, in his debut season with the North London club, Toby Alderweireld has to go down as one of the standout centre-halves of the latter 2010s.
Forming a fine partnership with compatriot Jan Vertonghen at Ajax and Spurs, the 127-cap Belgium international joined hometown club Royal Antwerp in 2022 – and, in truly dramatic fashion, scored a stoppage-time goal which sealed their first title for 66 years.
Considered one of the game’s best box-to-box midfielders during his prime years at Tottenham, Mousa Dembele’s incredible combination of power and technical prowess made him near unstoppable when in full flow.
Capped 82 times, retiring from international football the year after finishing third at the 2018 World Cup, Dembele stood out for his exceptional dribbling skills and ability to regain possession.
Adaptable enough to operate at left-back as well as in his natural centre-back role, Jan Vertonghen excelled at the highest level for a good decade.
Belgium’s record appearance-maker with 157 caps, the former Ajax skipper made two PFA Premier League Teams of the Year and helped Spurs to their first ever Champions League final in 2019.
Immensely creative from his favoured left flank, the right or a central role, Dries Mertens was named 2016 Belgian Footballer of the Year.
An absolute legend at Napoli – where he notched a club-record 148 goals in 397 games and set up many more – Mertens retired from international football with 109 caps and 21 goals to his name, featuring as Belgium secured an historic third-placed finish at the 2018 World Cup.
Another Belgian goalkeeping great, Michel Preud’homme won the inaugural Yashin Award as the standout custodian of the 1994 World Cup.
Dominant in the box and capable of extraordinary saves, he won the title with Standard Liege and Mechelen in his homeland – as well as the 1987/88 Cup Winners’ Cup with the latter – and the Portuguese Cup at Benfica.
Fourth in the voting for the 1980 Ballon d’Or and nominated for football’s ultimate individual accolade on two other occasions, Wilfried Van Moer starred for Belgium for 16 years, featuring prominently in the Red Devils’ run to the final of Euro 1980 and wearing the captain’s armband at the 1982 World Cup.
A diminutive midfielder who was more than capable of holding his own physically, Van Moer played a central role in the Standard Liege team which won three league titles on the spin from 1969 to 1971.
Undoubtedly among the finest goalkeepers of his generation, six-foot-seven giant Thibaut Courtois had won all of the biggest club honours by the age of 30.
Regarded as a complete ‘keeper, Courtois played major roles in Belgium’s third-placed 2018 World Cup finish, two Premier League title successes at Chelsea, and Real Madrid’s Champions League triumph of 2021/22 – producing a display for the ages in the final against Liverpool.
Josephus Antoon Louisa Mermans: what a name. And Anderlecht’s legendary all-time leading goalscorer – who was on target 369 times in 405 outings for the Brussels giants – was some player, too.
Scoring 27 goals at just shy of 0.5 per game for the national team – including two at the 1954 World Cup – Mermans was a formidable frontman with immense aerial ability who earned the nickname ‘The Bombardier’.
Belgium’s record scorer for more than three decades, Bernard Voorhoof made the net ripple on 30 occasions during a 61-cap international career.
Just as prolific at club level – where he amassed well over 300 goals for hometown club Lierse, winning four top-flight titles – Voorhoof (full name Bernardus Ludovicus Voorhoof – wow) is one of just four players who featured at all three pre-war World Cups.
Belgium’s record goalscorer by an absolute country mile, Romelu Lukaku won his first of well over 100 caps in 2010 and went on to star in the Red Devils run to the semis of – and third place at – the 2018 World Cup.
An imposing centre-forward combining devastating finishing with world-class hold-up play, Lukaku has featured in the team of the year in the Premier League and Serie A – racking up more than 100 goals in the former.
A Rolls-Royce of a centre-back who established himself as one of the world’s best in that position during his 11-year association with Manchester City, Vincent Kompany goes down as the greatest Belgian defender of all time.
Captain for City’s first four Premier League title wins, Kompany – who bookended his career with spells at Anderlecht – also wore the armband as Belgium achieved their best World Cup finish of third in 2018, representing his country 89 times in all.
An authoritative attacking midfielder who could just about do it all, Jan Ceulemans was among the foremost members of Belgium’s first ‘Golden Generation’.
Included in the team of the tournament at both Euro 1980 and the 1986 World Cup, and nominated for the Ballon d’Or no fewer than four times – placing fifth in 1981 – Ceulemans bagged more than 200 goals for club and country, winning multiple league titles and Belgian Cups with Brugge.
The great Enzo Scifo drew comparisons with the likes of Michel Platini and Gianni Rivera – and not without good reason.
A world-class playmaker providing exceptional creativity from the number 10 role, the naturally gifted Scifo – a league champion with Anderlecht and Monaco – regularly produced moments of sublime individual brilliance, scooping Best Young Player at the 1986 World Cup, featuring in the team of the tournament at Italia ‘90 and earning four Ballon d’Or nominations.
Voted Belgium’s best player of the 20th century, Paul Van Himst has iconic status in the histories of Anderlecht and the national team alike.
A skilful, physical and free-scoring forward who finished as leading marksman in the Belgian top flight on three occasions and helped Anderlecht to eight titles, Van Himst struck 30 times in 81 caps for his country – with whom he finished third at the 1972 European Championship – and finished in the top five of the Ballon d’Or voting in 1964 and 1965.
The best playmaker in world football during the late 2010s and early 2020s, string-pulling wizard and set-piece master Kevin De Bruyne showed the Premier League new levels of creativity in helping Manchester City dominate the competition.
A treble winner with Pep Guardiola’s City in 2022/23, De Bruyne – who is one of a handful of midfielders to score four goals in a single Premier League match – took over the Belgium captaincy in 2023 and passed the milestone of 100 caps the following year.
And coming in at number one, we have a player who was unquestionably one of the very best of his era: Eden Hazard.
Captain of his country for the best part of a decade, leading them to that historic third-placed finish at the 2018 World Cup, the scintillating forward with defence-shredding dribbling abilities (case in point: his astonishing solo goal for Chelsea against Arsenal in 2017) won every major club honour available to him and made the PFA Premier League Team of the Year in four out of five campaigns between 2012/13 and 2016/17.
