Nicolas Lombaerts
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Nicolas Robert Christian Lombaerts[1] | ||
Date of birth | 20 March 1985 | ||
Place of birth | Brugge, Belgium | ||
Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
Position(s) | Centre back | ||
Team information | |||
Current team | KV Oostende B | ||
Youth career | |||
1991–2004 | Club Brugge | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
2004–2007 | Gent | 76 | (1) |
2007–2017 | Zenit Saint Petersburg | 196 | (9) |
2017–2019 | KV Oostende | 52 | (1) |
2019– | KV Oostende B | ||
International career | |||
2006–2016 | Belgium | 39 | (3) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 2 May 2019 |
Nicolas Robert Christian Lombaerts (born 20 March 1985) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a centre back for the B-team of KV Oostende.
Career
Club
Brugge
Lombaerts joined Club Brugge at young age where he went through all youth ranks. He claimed various league titles at young age as he was part of a strong generation at Brugge, with players such as Jason Vandelannoite, Glenn Verbauwhede and Thomas Matton.
Gent
As his ambition was to play in the starting lineup of a first division team as soon as possible and Club Brugge was not able to guarantee this, he moved to Gent where he soon was able to play almost every match in the 2005–06 Belgian First Division and also got his first appearance for the Belgium national football team. Apart from football, he was at that point still studying law at Ghent University. Several times he was selected for the Belgian national youth teams such as the Belgium national under-21 football team. Highlights were the 2004 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship and the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.
Zenit
In July 2007, Lombaerts chose a lucrative transfer to the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg in Russia. At that point he quit his studies and chose for a football career. Zenit eventually won its first Russian league title with the 2007 Russian Premier League. At the beginning of 2008, Lombaerts was sidelined for over half a year as the result of a knee injury. He received knee injury in UEFA Cup game against Villarreal CF during the attack that led to the only away goal against the Spanish team. His actions in this game (goal assist by header) later on have been regarded by Zenit fans as one of the most important steps in the subsequent victory in UEFA Cup. In the following games without him, his team won the 2007–08 UEFA Cup and he also missed the 2008 Summer Olympics where Belgium finished fourth.
Lombaerts finally made his return to Zenit on 19 July 2009, coming on in the 71st minute for Aleksei Ionov against Terek Grozny. Even though Zenit were defeated 3-2, Lombaerts described the happiness of taking the pitch again as similar to "a small child's joy when walking into a shop full of sweets."[2] He then quickly became a fixture in defense for caretaker Anatoliy Davydov, helping Zenit win six consecutive matches to get back into the title hunt. On 29 November 2009, Lombaerts scored the game-winning goal against rival Spartak Moscow to put Zenit into the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League as third-place team in Russia.[3]
On 5 July 2010, Lombaerts signed a four-year contract to remain with Zenit.[4]
Oostende
On 24 March 2017, it was announced that after 10 seasons with Zenit, Lombaerts will return to Belgium for 2017–18 season, signing with K.V. Oostende.[5] He played his last, 289th official game for Zenit on 17 May 2017 in a game against FC Krasnodar and was honoured by the club.[6]
On 30 July 2019 it was announced, that the club wanted to terminate his contract in exchange for a severance payment of 300,000 euros and was sent to the B-team. The club was in financial problems after owner Marc Coucke left the club, why they wanted to part ways with Lombaerts and his heavy weighs.[7][8]
International
He has made his debut in full internationals in May 2006 in a friendly against Saudi Arabia,[9] and played 3 matches in Euro 2008 qualifying.
On 26 May 2014, in a pre-World Cup match against Luxembourg, Lombaerts came on as a substitute in the 77th minute for Jan Vertonghen. As Belgium had already made the 6 permitted substitutions, the match was therefore declared invalid on 4 June.[10]
Career statistics
Club
- As of 22 December 2017
Club | Season | League | Cup | Continental | Other | Total | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
Gent | 2004–05 | Belgian First Division A | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 14 | 0 | ||
2005–06 | 31 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | – | 40 | 1 | |||
2006–07 | 32 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 39 | 0 | |||
Total | 76 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 93 | 1 | ||
Zenit St. Petersburg | 2007 | Russian Premier League | 13 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | – | 23 | 2 | |
2008 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | – | 5 | 0 | |||
2009 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 18 | 2 | |||
2010 | 26 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 0 | – | 37 | 3 | |||
2011–12 | 40 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | – | 50 | 3 | |||
2012–13 | 22 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 1[a] | 0 | 35 | 0 | ||
2013–14 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | – | 39 | 1 | |||
2014–15 | 24 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 0 | – | 37 | 0 | |||
2015–16 | 18 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1[b] | 0 | 29 | 0 | ||
2016–17 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | – | 15 | 0 | |||
Total | 195 | 9 | 16 | 0 | 75 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 288 | 11 | ||
Oostende | 2017–18 | Belgian First Division A | 17 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 20 | 0 | |
Career total | 288 | 10 | 28 | 0 | 83 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 401 | 12 |
- ^ One appearance in the Russian Super Cup
- ^ One appearance in the Russian Super Cup
International
National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
---|---|---|---|
Belgium national team | 2006 | 1 | 0 |
2007 | 3 | 0 | |
2008 | 0 | 0 | |
2009 | 3 | 0 | |
2010 | 5 | 1 | |
2011 | 6 | 1 | |
2012 | 2 | 0 | |
2013 | 4 | 0 | |
2014 | 7 | 1 | |
2015 | 6 | 0 | |
2016 | 2 | 0 | |
Total | 39 | 3 |
International goals
- Scores and results list Belgium's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lombaerts goal.
# | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 12 October 2010 | King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium | Austria | 4–3 | 4–4 | UEFA Euro 2012 Qualification |
2 | 6 September 2011 | King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium | United States | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly |
3 | 12 November 2014 | King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium | Iceland | 1–0 | 3–1 | Friendly |
Career honours
Club
Zenit St. Petersburg
- Russian Premier League (4): 2007, 2010, 2011-12, 2014–15
- Russian Cup (1): 2010
- Russian Super Cup (2): 2008, 2011
- UEFA Cup (1): 2007-08
- UEFA Super Cup (1): 2008
Notes
- ^ "Nicolas Lombaerts". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
- ^ Николас Ломбертс: "Когда вышел на поле в Грозном, испытал этакую детскую радость" (in Russian). sport-express.ru.
- ^ Зенит 2-1 Спартак статистика (in Russian). sports.ru.
- ^ Ломбертс подписал новый контракт с "Зенитом" (in Russian). sports.ru. 5 July 2010.
- ^ "LOMBAERTS VOORGESTELD IN DURBUY" (in Dutch). K.V. Oostende. 24 March 2017.
- ^ Николас Ломбертс провел последний матч за «Зенит» на «Петровском» (in Russian). FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. 17 May 2017.
- ^ Oostende wil contract Lombaerts ontbinden in ruil voor vergoeding van 300.000 euro, hln.be, 30 July 2019
- ^ NICOLAS LOMBAERTS NAAR DE B-KERN, kvo.be, 29 July 2019
- ^ Lombaerts deal uefa.com
- ^ "Adnan Januzaj's Belgium debut wiped from record books". BBC Sport. 4 June 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
- ^ "Nicolas Lombaerts". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
External links
- 1985 births
- Living people
- Flemish sportspeople
- Sportspeople from Bruges
- Association football defenders
- Belgian footballers
- Belgian expatriate footballers
- Belgium youth international footballers
- Belgium under-21 international footballers
- Belgium international footballers
- K.A.A. Gent players
- FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players
- K.V. Oostende players
- Expatriate footballers in Russia
- Russian Premier League players
- Belgian First Division A players
- 2014 FIFA World Cup players