List of Belgium national football team managers

The male Belgian national (association) football team has been under the supervision of 23 different permanent managers and two caretakers since 1910.^[1][2] Before 1910 and in 1919, a committee of the RBFA presided by Édouard de Laveleye selected the players. Initially supervised by foreigners, it would take until 1930 for team Belgium to be officially led by a Belgian (Hector Goetinck).

As of 29 March 2016, coach Marc Wilmots is the most successful (permanent) manager that Belgium has ever had in statistical terms, with an average of 2.22 points per match. The coach that brought Belgium most successes at international tournament end stages was Guy Thys, who led his team to the 1980 European Championship final and six years later to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Mexico. In 1986, magazine World Soccer proclaimed Thys Manager of the Year.^[3]

Manager	Nat	Tenure	Pld	W	D*	L	Win %	Pts/G[upper-alpha 1]	Major tournaments**
Selection committee (1)	—	1904–1909	19	8	1	10	42.11	1.32	SO 1908
Maxwell, WilliamWilliam Maxwell (1)		1910–1913	23	11	3	9	47.83	1.57	SO 1912
Bunyan, CharlesCharles Bunyan		1914	4	0	0	4	0.00	0.00	—
Selection committee (2)	—	1914–1919	1	0	1	0	0.00	1.00	—
Maxwell, WilliamWilliam Maxwell (2)		1920–1928	56	18	10	28	32.14	1.14	SO 1920 – Winners[upper-alpha 2] SO 1924 – Round 2
Löwenfeld, ViktorViktor Löwenfeld		1928–1930	11	5	2	4	45.45	1.55	SO 1928 – Quarter-finals
Goetinck, HectorHector Goetinck (1)		1930–1934	31	7	5	19	22.58	0.84	WC 1930 – Round 1 WC 1934 – Round 1
Turnauer, JulesJules Turnauer		1935	3	0	1	2	0.00	0.33	—
Butler, JackJack Butler		1935–1939	32	8	7	17	25.00	0.97	WC 1938 – Round 1 SO 1936
Goetinck, HectorHector Goetinck (2)		1939–1940	0	0	0	0	—	—	—
Selection committee (3)	—	1940–1943	0	0	0	0	—	—	—
Demol, FrançoisFrançois Demol		1944–1946	8	2	2	4	25.00	1.00	—
Gormlie, BillBill Gormlie		1947–1953	44	18	9	17	40.91	1.43	WC 1950[upper-alpha 3]
Livingstone, DougDoug Livingstone		1953–1954	13	5	6	2	38.46	1.62	WC 1954 – Group stage
Vandeweyer, AndréAndré Vandeweyer		1955–1957	17	4	2	11	23.53	0.82	—
Nicolay, LouisLouis Nicolay^ct		1957	1	1	0	0	100.00	3.00	—
Toldi, GézaGéza Toldi		1957–1958	6	1	2	3	16.67	0.83	WC 1958
Vanden Stock, ConstantConstant Vanden Stock[upper-alpha 4]		1958–1968	68	28	11	29	41.18	1.40	EC 1960,[upper-alpha 5] WC 1962, EC 1964, WC 1966, EC 1968
Goethals, RaymondRaymond Goethals		1968–1976	44	25	8	11	56.82	1.89	WC 1970 – Group stage EC 1972 – Third place WC 1974, EC 1976
Thys, GuyGuy Thys (1)		1976–1989	101	45	24*	32	44.55	1.57	EC 1980 – Runners-up WC 1982 – Round 2 EC 1984 – Group stage WC 1986 – Fourth place WC 1978, EC 1988
Meeuws, WalterWalter Meeuws		1989–1990	6	2	3	1	33.33	1.50	—
Thys, GuyGuy Thys (2)		1990–1991	13	4	4	5	30.77	1.23	WC 1990 – Round of 16 EC 1992
Van Himst, PaulPaul Van Himst		1991–1996	36	19	5	12	52.78	1.72	WC 1994 – Round of 16 EC 1996
Van Moer, WilfriedWilfried Van Moer		1996	5	2	2	1	40.00	1.60	—
Leekens, GeorgesGeorges Leekens (1)		1997–1999	29	10	10*	9	34.48	1.38	WC 1998 – Group stage
Waseige, RobertRobert Waseige		1999–2002	34	16	11[upper-alpha 6]	7	47.06	1.74	EC 2000 – Group stage WC 2002 – Round of 16
Anthuenis, AiméAimé Anthuenis		2002–2005	29	12	7	10	41.38	1.48	EC 2004, WC 2006
Vandereycken, RenéRené Vandereycken		2005–2009	30	10	7	13	33.33	1.23	EC 2008, WC 2010
Vercauteren, FrankyFranky Vercauteren^ct		2009	5	0	1	4	0.00	0.20	—
Advocaat, DickDick Advocaat		2009–2010	5	3	0	2	60.00	1.80	—
Leekens, GeorgesGeorges Leekens (2)		2010–2012	19	8	7	4	42.10	1.63	EC 2012
Wilmots, MarcMarc Wilmots[upper-alpha 7]		2012–2016	49[upper-alpha 8]	33	8	8	67.35	2.18	WC 2014 – Quarter-finals EC 2016 – Quarter-finals
Martínez, RobertoRoberto Martínez		2016–	6	4	1	1	66.67	2.17
Totals			748	309	160	279	41.31	1.45	20 out of 41 tournaments
* Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks. ** Abbreviations: SO = Summer Olympics, WC = World Cup, EC = European Championship (1), (2) first term, second term ^ct caretaker manager

Last updated: Belgium vs. Estonia, 13 November 2016. Statistics include official FIFA-recognised matches only.

Footnotes

1. According to the "three points for a win" standard
2. Even though William Maxwell was the official manager then, in the tournament Raoul Daufresne coached the squad.
3. Belgium withdrew from the qualifiers.
4. Manager Vanden Stock only selected the players; under him, the Red Devils were consecutively trained by Viktor Havlicek (1958–60), Henri Dekens (1960–61), Arthur Ceuleers (1961–65) and Raymond Goethals (1966–68).
5. Belgium did not enter the qualifiers.
6. During a 2001 friendly draw against Czech Republic, assistants Vince Briganti and Jacky Munaron managed the team as Waseige recovered from cardiac bypass surgery.^[2]
7. Wilmots was only a caretaker in his first two matches against Montenegro and England.^[4] In June, first the player group and later also the Belgian Football Association chose him as permanent coach.^[5][6]
8. Note that the friendlies against Romania on 14 November 2012 and against Luxembourg on 26 May 2014 are not FIFA-recognised due to an excessive number of substitutions.^[7]

References

1. "Belgium national football team match results". eu-football.info. Retrieved 5 Sep 2013.
2. Hassanin Mubarak (7 Aug 2003). "Belgium National Team Coaches". RSSSF archive of coaches 1904–. RSSSF. Retrieved 14 Sep 2013.
3. Jamie Rainbow (14 Dec 2012). "World Soccer Awards – previous winners". World Soccer. Retrieved 29 Apr 2015.
4. Maarten Delvaux; Bart Lagae (15 May 2012). "Marc Wilmots voorlopig interim-bondscoach". De Standaard (in Dutch).
5. janm (6 Jun 2012). "Marc Wilmots is nieuwe bondscoach tot 2014". De Standaard (in Dutch).
6. Gunther De Vos (4 Jun 2012). "Rode Duivels willen verder met Wilmots". De Standaard (in Dutch).
7. "Rules & Governance - Law 3: The number of players". The FA. Retrieved 25 Oct 2014.