From September 2018 to March 2022, Belgium sat atop the FIFA world rankings, a run bettered only by Brazil and Spain.
They had Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and Romelu Lukaku close to their peak, and they arrived at tournament after tournament among the favorites. Yet this golden generation never won a thing.
Belgium was so consistent that they were rarely far from the front of the World Cup betting odds, and few squads of the era carried higher expectations. The hard truth is that, for all the talent, the hardware never came.
In this article, we look at why a team with so much promise came away with nothing.
A Peak That Arrived Too Soon
Belgium’s high point came at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where they finished third, their best-ever showing.
They beat Brazil 2-1 in a memorable quarter-final before losing narrowly to eventual champions France in the semi-finals. The problem was that this proved to be as good as it got. Rather than building towards a final, the team gradually declined from that summer onwards, with the same core asked to deliver again and again.
An Aging Core
By the time the 2022 World Cup came around, the squad had grown old together. Belgium’s starting lineup against Croatia had an average age of 31 years and 95 days, the oldest any side had fielded at a World Cup since 2010.
The defense that had served them so well, built around Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld, was past its best, while Hazard was a shadow of his Chelsea self after injuries and a difficult spell at Real Madrid.
Lukaku, carrying a knock, missed a series of chances against Croatia that would have taken Belgium through.
The Pieces Never Quite Fit
For all their individual brilliance, Belgium rarely looked greater than the sum of its parts. De Bruyne, Hazard and Lukaku were among the best in the world in their positions, yet the team seldom clicked the way the names on the teamsheet suggested it should.
Under Roberto Martinez, who spent six years in charge, the football was often easy on the eye but light on a clear plan for the biggest matches. They were such reliable contenders that they appeared in every tournament preview and across the betting offers surrounding a major final, but reputation counted for little once the knockout rounds arrived.
Fine Margins and Bad Timing
Some of it came down to luck. Belgium lost a tight quarter-final to Argentina in 2014, fell to France in 2018, and went out to eventual winners Italy at Euro 2020. In Qatar in 2022, a shot conversion rate of just 2.9%, the worst of any team that scored at the tournament, summed up a campaign in which nothing went right. A run that had promised so much ended with a group-stage exit and Martinez leaving his post within hours.
The legacy is a strange one. Belgium gave us four years at the top of the rankings, a host of world-class players and one unforgettable World Cup run, yet no final and no trophy. With De Bruyne and the rest moving on and a new group led by the likes of Jeremy Doku coming through, the golden generation is remembered as much for what it did not win as for what it did.
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