Paul Van Himst
 Van Himst with Anderlecht in 1973 | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Paul Van Himst | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 2 October 1943 | |||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium | |||||||||||||
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | |||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Forward | |||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||
| 1951–1959 | Anderlecht | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1959–1975 | Anderlecht | 457 | (233) | |||||||||||
| 1975–1976 | Molenbeek | 21 | (1) | |||||||||||
| 1976–1977 | Eendracht Aalst | |||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||
| 1960–1974 | Belgium | 81 | (30) | |||||||||||
| Managerial career | ||||||||||||||
| 1983–1986 | Anderlecht | |||||||||||||
| 1987–1988 | Molenbeek | |||||||||||||
| 1991–1996 | Belgium | |||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||
Paul Van Himst (born 2 October 1943) is a Belgian former football player and a football manager who played as a forward, most notably for R.S.C. Anderlecht.
Career
Van Himst was nicknamed Polle Gazon (Polle is Paul in Brussels dialect, and Gazon means lawn in Dutch and French) due to the large number of fouls committed on him. In 1964, he played in the Belgium-Netherlands match alongside 10 Anderlecht players after the substitution of goalkeeper Delhasse by Jean-Marie Trappeniers.
Van Himst won the Belgian championship eight times, all of them with Anderlecht, the club for which he played his first professional season in 1959–60. With Anderlecht, he scored 233 goals in 457 matches (16 seasons). He then played for RWDM (another Brussels club) in 1975–76 and for Eendracht Aalst (then in the second division) in the following season.
Between 1960 and 1974, Van Himst scored 30 goals (in 81 matches) for the Belgian national team. This performance made him Belgium's second top scorer—along with Bernard Voorhoof—and the tenth most capped player for his country. He made his debut on 19 October 1960 in a match against Sweden and he was part of Belgium's team which qualified for the 1970 World Cup. Van Himst then helped Belgium reach third place at the Euro 1972. As a football manager, Van Himst worked notably for Anderlecht and the national team which he led to the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Family
His wife, Arlette Neckebroeck, died on 4 December 2013.[1]
Filmography
- Escape to Victory (1981) - Michel Fileu - The Players: Belgium
- Max (1994) - Himself
Honours and awards
Van Himst holds the record of most Golden Shoe awards, having won it on four occasions. In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was named the Golden Player of Belgium by the Belgian Football Association as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years.[2]
He has been an ambassador for the Belgian/South-African NGO "Born In Africa" since 2005.
In 2009, Van Himst became honorary citizen of Dilbeek.[3]
Player
- Belgian First Division: 1961–62, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1971–72, 1973–74
- Belgian Cup: 1964–65, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1974–75
- Belgian League Cup: 1973, 1974
- Tournoi de Paris: 1964, 1966[6]
- Inter-Cities Fairs Cup runner-up: 1969–70
International
- UEFA European Championship third place: 1972[7]
Individual
- Belgian Golden Shoe: 1960, 1961, 1965, 1974[8]
- Belgian First Division top scorer: 1963–64 (26 goals), 1965–66 (25 goals), 1967–68 (20 goals)[9]
- Ballon d'Or: 1964 (5th place),[10] 1965 (4th place)[11]
- Ballon d'Or nominations: 1963,[12] 1966,[13] 1967,[14] 1972[15]
- 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification: Group 1 top scorer (5 goals)
- 1966–67 European Cup: top scorer (6 goals)[16]
- 1969–70 Inter-Cities Fair Cup: top scorer (10 goals)[16]
- Man of the Season (Belgian First Division): 1970–71[17]
- Former Belgium's Most Capped Player: 1973–1989 (81 caps)[18]
- Belgian National Sports Merit Award: 1974[19]
- Belgian Footballer of the 20th Century: 1995[20]
- Planète Foot's 50 of the World's Best Players: 1996[21]
- IFFHS European Player of the Century (39th): 2000[22]
- Platina 11 (Best Team in 50 Years of Golden Shoe Winners): 2003[23]
- UEFA Golden Player Award: 2003[24]
- Bronzen Zinneke: 2006[25]
- The Best Golden Shoe Team Ever: 2011[26]
- DH The Best RSC Anderlecht Team Ever: 2020[27]
- IFFHS All Time Belgium Dream Team: 2021[28]
Manager
Anderlecht[4]
- Belgian First Division: 1984–85
- Belgian Super Cup: 1985
- UEFA Cup: 1982–83; runner-up: 1983–84
- Jules Pappaert Cup: 1985[29]
Individual
See also
References
- ^ "Paul Van Himste takes leave of his wife". Niewsblad.be. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
- ^ "uefa.com-UEFA-News & Features-News Specific". Archived from the original on 12 March 2004.
- ^ "Kums in de voetsporen van Van Himst". Sport.be (in Dutch). 5 March 2016.
- ^ a b "RSC Anderlecht | Palmares".
- ^ "Anderlecht | De Geschiedenis Van De Club".
- ^ "Tournois de Paris : une compétition opposant 4 clubs" (in French). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ^ "UEFA Euro 1972".
- ^ "Winnaars Gouden Schoen".
- ^ "Topscorer Eerste Klasse".
- ^ "Ballon d'Or 1964".
- ^ "Ballon d'Or 1965".
- ^ "Ballon d'Or 1963".
- ^ "Ballon d'Or 1966".
- ^ "Ballon d'Or 1967".
- ^ "Ballon d'Or 1972".
- ^ a b "Paul Van Himst: 8 Titels, 4 Bekers, een resem goals en vooral ... 75 Jaar!".
- ^ "Homme de la saison belge".
- ^ "Vertonghen wordt zevende recordinternational van de Rode Duivels".
- ^ "Nationale Trofee voor Sportverdienste".
- ^ "Soulier d'or belge du 20ème siècle".
- ^ "The Best x Players of the Century/All-Time". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ "IFFHS History: Europe - The Player of the Century (1900-1999)". www.iffhs.com.
- ^ UEFA.com (15 January 2004). "Aruna voted Belgium's finest | Inside UEFA". UEFA.com. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ^ "Belgium still bows to Van Himst".
- ^ "Bronzen Zinnekes voor Merckx, Van Himst en Wynants" (in Dutch). bruzz.be. 7 June 2006.
- ^ "Het beste Gouden Schoen-elftal ooit".
- ^ "La Dernière Heure | Het Beste Elftal Aller Tijden".
- ^ "IFFHS All Time Belgium Dream Team". www.iffhs.com. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ^ "Jules Pappaert Cup".
- ^ "Palmares Profvoetballer van het Jaar".
External links
Media related to Paul Van Himst at Wikimedia Commons
- CV
- UEFA.com – Golden Player of Belgium
- Born In Africa – Ambassador of the NGO
- – Belgium still bow to Van Himst – By Berend Scholten on UEFA.com
Belgium squads | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1943 births
- Living people
- 1970 FIFA World Cup players
- 1994 FIFA World Cup managers
- Belgian football managers
- Belgian Pro League players
- Belgium men's international footballers
- Belgium national football team managers
- Footballers from Flemish Brabant
- People from Sint-Pieters-Leeuw
- R.W.D. Molenbeek (1909) managers
- R.W.D. Molenbeek (1909) players
- R.S.C. Anderlecht managers
- R.S.C. Anderlecht players
- S.C. Eendracht Aalst players
- UEFA Champions League top scorers
- UEFA Cup winning managers
- UEFA Euro 1972 players
- UEFA Golden Players
- Men's association football forwards
- Belgian men's footballers