Björn Engels

Club Brugge

Born in Kaprijke, Belgium, Engels began his career at Club Brugge since first joining them at twelve, having previously being a youth clubs at FC Kaprijke-Bentille, FC Lembeke and Lokeren before joining them in 2006.

After progressing through the ranks of the academy, Engels appeared as an unused substitute bench, in a match against Gent on 29 October 2011, which saw Club Brugge win 5–4. It wasn’t until on 20 September 2012 when Engels made his professional debut in the UEFA Europa League against Girondins de Bordeaux. He came in the field at half-time for Thibaut Van Acker. Only one minute later he scored an own goal. After the match, Engels described his Club Brugge debut as “very painful”. This turns out to be only appearance in the 2012–13 season. Shortly after, Engels signed his first professional contract with Club Brugge, signing a three–year deal.

Engels made his league debut on 4 August 2013 in the second game of the 2013–14 season against Oostende. He played the full game and scored the opening goal in the 3rd minute. Club Brugge won the game with 2-1. After scoring his second against Kortrijk on 20 October 2013, Engels’ performance at the club resulted him signing a contract extension, keeping him until 2017 on 28 November 2013. Later in the 2013–14 season, Engels went on to score three more goals against Genk, Zulte Waregem and Lokeren. Despite being on the sidelined, due to injury and suspension, Engels continued to be in the first team regular and finished the 2013–14 season, making thirty–five appearances and scoring five times in all competitions. For his performance this season, Engels was nominated for the Young Professional Footballer of the Year, but lost out to Youri Tielemans.

After missing out the opening game of the 2014–15 season, due to an injury, Engels managed to regained his first team when he made his first appearance of the season against Brøndby. Following this, Engels then scored against Anderlecht on 31 August 2014 and a brace against Oostende on 28 September 2014. However, in the next match against Standard Liège on 5 October 2014, which saw them win 3–0, Engels suffered both knee and ankle injury despite playing the whole game. Initially out between three to six weeks, Engels’ recovery has been delayed throughout 2014 despite making progress. While recovering from both injuries, Engels signed a contract extension with the club, keeping him until 2019, on 8 January 2015. However, while continuing recovering from injuries, Engels’ recovery was delayed again when he would be out for the rest of the season following a scan. Despite this, Engels finished the 2014–15 season, making twelve appearance and scoring three times in all competitions and saw the club win the Beker van België along the way.

Ahead of the 2015–16 season, Engels appeared to have recovered from his injuries when he returned to training in the pre–season. However, at the start of the 2015–16 season, Engels’ hopes of returning suffered a setback when he was out for several months, delaying his return again following a scan. After returning to training from injury around October for the first time in months, Engels made his first appearance in a year since returning from injury on 10 December 2015, where he came on as a late substitute, in a 1–1 draw against Midtjylland on Matchday Six of the UEFA Europa League Group Stage. Engels then made his first league appearance in a year against Anderlecht on 20 December 2015, where he set up a goal for the club, in a 4–1 loss. It wasn’t until on 16 January 2016 when Engels scored his first goal of the season, in a 3–0 win over Mouscron, followed up by scoring his second in the next game on 24 January 2016, in a 2–1 win over Waasland-Beveren. Despite suffering two separate injuries towards the end of the 2015–16 season, Engels helped the club win the league in the 2015–16 season, earning him the winner’s medal and despite missing out the most of the season, due to injuries, he made twenty–one appearances and scoring two times in all competitions.

Ahead of the 2016–17 season, Engels was linked a move away from Club Brugge, prompting a response from Filip Joos Mulder, who stated that Engels is worth 60 million (in China). Nevertheless, Engels remained at the club and signed a contract extension with the club, keeping him until 2020. After being left out of the squad for the first three matches of the start of the season, including Belgium Super Cup, Engels then scored his first goal of the season on 28 August 2016, in a 2–2 draw against Standard Liège and weeks later on 14 September 2016, he made his Champions League debut against Leicester City, where he earned a booking in the 35th minutes, in a 3–0 loss. However, during the match, Engels suffered a shoulder injury and was substituted in the 53rd minutes. After the match, it would be announced that he would be sidelined for months with the injury. It wasn’t until on 18 December 2016 when he made his return from injury, making his first start in months, in a 5–1 win over Kortrijk.

International career

After going through the ranks of Belgium U17, Belgium U18 and Belgium U19, Engels received his first call up to the senior Belgium squad in March 2016 for a friendly against Portugal, but didn’t play. Two months later, Engels was again called up for the senior Belgium squad ahead of the Euro 2016 tournament. However, Engels suffered a thigh injury that ruled him out of the tournament.

After being left out the senior squad, Engels was called up by the Belgium U21 for the first time on 26 August 2016 and made his Belgium U21 debut on 2 September 2016 against Malta U21, scoring a winning goal, in a 3–2 win.

Club

Personal life

Engels has a brother named Manice and is in a relationship with his partner, Evangalitsa, whom he had been dating for three years.