Hein Vanhaezebrouck

Hein Vanhaezebrouck

Personal information
Date of birth	(1964-02-16) 16 February 1964
Place of birth	Kortrijk, Belgium
Team information
Current team	KAA Gent (manager)
Managerial career
Years	Team
2000–2002	Lokeren (assistant)
2003	SWI Harelbeke
2003–2006	White Star Lauwe
2006–2009	KV Kortrijk
2009	RC Genk
2010–2014	KV Kortrijk
2014–	KAA Gent

Hein Vanhaezebrouck (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦɛin vɑnˈɦaːzəbruk]; born 16 February 1964) is a Belgian football coach, currently coaching KAA Gent.

Early life

Vanhaezebrouck was born in Kortrijk and raised in Lauwe.

Career

Hein Vanhaezebrouck is a former player of, among others KV Kortrijk, KRC Harelbeke en Sporting Lokeren.

Vanhaezebrouck became the coach of soccer team KV Kortrijk on 1 July 2006. He replaced Manu Ferrera at that time. In the season 2005–06, he was still head coach of White Star Lauwe. Before, he also coached Sporting West. Hein Vanhaezebrouck is a coach who always wants to play-offensively. During the World Championship Soccer 2006, he was also an analyst and co-commenter on VT4 and since a few years, he is also an analyst on Sporting Telenet. In the season 2007–08 Vanhaezebrouck won the title with Kortrijk in Second Division. In the Belgian Cup, Kortrijk finished in the quarter finals against AA Gent, despite a 5–1 victory in the home game. This confrontation and the offensive play of Kortrijk aroused the interest of AA Gent to succeed Trond Sollied as head coach. However, at the end of April 2008, Vanhaezebrouck signed a contract renewal of two years (until 2010) at Kortrijk. Right there, he became well known for the acquisition of Google-striker Istvan Bakx. Vanhaezebrouck discovered Bakx by Internet browser Google.

At the start of the 2009–10 season, Vanhaezebrouck went to KRC Genk. Right there, he failed at the start, which created doubts about him rising. He was fired as coach of KRC Genk on 29 November 2009. At that time, Genk was 12th in the ranking after 16 games. His successor was Franky Vercauteren.

In June 2010, Vanhaezebrouck decided to return to KV Kortrijk in the 2010–11 season. In that season, the team needed to be satisfied with a 10th spot in the rankings. The next year, the team played Play-off 1 and reached the cup final, losing it against Sporting Lokeren with a 1–0 score. On 10 May 2013, it was announced that he re-signed a contract at KV Kortrijk.

In May 2014, he decided to leave KV Kortrijk for AA Gent. There, he reached his biggest success, as he won, after his championships in Third and Second Division, also the championship in First Division in 2015.