5 best young talents from Belgium
In recent years, the Belgium national football team has been blessed with an array of talent. Hailed as Belgium’s ‘Golden Generation’, the squad consists of superstars like Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany, arguably one of the finest defenders in the Premier League, Toby Alderweireld, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and so on.
Adding to this experienced bunch are potential world-beaters and wunderkinds already excelling at their respective clubs or are likely to do so in the near future. For the purpose of this article, any Belgian player aged 23 or below who is either already established in the club and national team set up or has bags of potential has been considered.
#1 Romelu Lukaku
When a former team realises their mistake in selling a player and is interested in bringing him back to the club, it can be said that the player turned out to be special. Real Madrid activated their buy-back clause for Dani Carvajal a year after selling him to Bayer Leverkusen and more recently, did the same with Alvaro Morata. Similarly, Manchester United bought back Paul Pogba for a world record fee acknowledging their mistake in letting go a world class talent.
Chelsea let Lukaku slip away by selling him to Everton and as Ronald Koeman confirmed, Everton’s best bit of business in this summer was to stave off Chelsea’s interest in the £75 million-rated Belgian. It is a testament to his talent and development over the last few years.
Also read: 5 players sold by Jose Mourinho at Chelsea currently doing well in the Premier League
Whether it was on loan at West Brom, or at Everton, Lukaku has overcome his slight inconsistencies to constantly deliver and has now matured into one of the finest strikers in the Premier League, right behind the likes of Sergio Aguero and Diego Costa.
With 85 league goals since moving to West Brom on loan for the 2012-13 season and 22 international goals, Lukaku is a phenomenon in front of goal. And he is now being directly coached by Belgium’s assistant coach and one of the best Premier League strikers ever, Thierry Henry. Just 23 right now, and with over a decade of football left, Lukaku has a long way to go and can be pivotal for any Champions League team he opts to move to and for Belgium’s golden generation.