Place of birth Spalbeek, Belgium 1981–1983 Genoa CFC 1974–1981 Club Brugge Height 1.75 m | 1971–1974 KSC Hasselt Role Football player Years Team Name Rene Vandereycken | |
 | ||
Date of birth (1953-07-22) 22 July 1953 (age 62) | ||
René Vandereycken (born 22 July 1953 in Spalbeek) is a Belgian football manager and a former player. He was the head coach of the Belgian national team from 1 January 2006 to 7 April 2009.
Contents
Career
He played for Club Brugge, Genoa and Anderlecht.
International
As a player he got 50 caps and scored 3 goals for the national team, and represented Belgium at the Euro 1980, in the final of which he scored a penalty.
Coaching career
He used to coach 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 Belgian 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 2 matches against Bosnia in World Cup qualifying.