BELGIUM : THE RISE OF GOLDEN GENERATION

 Belgium have struggled in football and went low key after its brilliant performance at the 1986 world cup was cut short by Maradona’s brace in the semifinal.

There is a very old saying that goes - “when the environment is right the right people will appear”

This has largely been the case for Belgian football - they drastically changed their system of coaching and producing talent (changing the environment players were developed in) and a whole list of naturally talented footballers seemed to follow or simply appear at the right time.

in the early 2000s they went about working with all the clubs in the country and delivering coaching manuals on how best to develop technically good players who are tactically astute. And another big change was focusing on player development rather than results in matches. Every game became a learning process - rather than to win at all costs-which can subsequently stunt development. Parents were also not allowed to scream things at the kids from the sidelines and which resulted in the kids playing on instruction purely from the coach with no distraction or having their self esteem killed by overly keen adults.

This has largely been the case for Belgian football - they drastically changed their system of coaching and producing talent (changing the environment players were developed in) and a whole list of naturally talented footballers seemed to follow or simply appear at the right time.

the best thing about a system which focuses on developing technical skill and tactical awareness is that even if players are not as talented as de Bruyne or Hazard they will still learn to be good enough to fit into a team and do an important job. It’s almost Impossible to have world class players in every position but you can be sure those few who are not will understand the tactics and be technically good enough to retain possession, win balls back and keep the ball circulating for their teams. 

Even the Belgian once illustrious league has gone under and most of their Nationals are flooding the English premier league(EPL) and other top European clubs.

The last 8-10 years have seen the resurrection of Belgian players across Europe especially in England.

Eden hazard has been the most outstanding with Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu lukaku.

Their 2014 world cup hopes were cut short by Argentina in the quarter finals but it was predicted that or the same team sticks together, it will surprise the world 4 years later.

And that prophecy was correct. Theteamwere survived the quarter final and defeated tournament favourites Brazil in an epic and thrilling match.

They were almost en route to win their first ever world cup before a more organized French team shattered that dreams.Their style of football have been so entertaining and they have won many hearts in this beautiful game of soccer and will continue to do so.

This generation of great dribbler and playmaker like Eden hazard, wonderkid Kevin de Bruyne, the bully and goal scoring machine Lukaku are still likely to dominate for another 4 years.           

This generation of Belgian players weren't built ,they all came at a time when Belgium needed a revival in football and it was no coincidence that they all appeared at the same time in the world stage.