Thomas Meunier

Thomas Meunier
Personal information
Full name Thomas Meunier
Date of birth (1991-09-12) 12 September 1991
Place of birth Sainte-Ode, Belgium
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Playing position Right back
Club information
Current team
 Club Brugge
Number 19
Youth career
1996–2002 RUS Saint-Ode
2002–2004 RUS Givry
2004–2006 Standard Liège
2006–2009 Virton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
2009–2011 Virton 46 (14)
2011– Club Brugge 154 (16)
National team‡
2006 Belgium U15 1 (0)
2011–2012 Belgium U21 7 (1)
2013– Belgium 5 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20 April 2016.
† Appearances (goals)

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 11:57, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Thomas Meunier (born 12 September 1991) is a Belgian footballer who plays as a right back for Club Brugge in the Belgian Pro League.

Career

Meunier was signed by Club Brugge from Belgian Third Division team Virton in January 2011, with the actual transfer to be completed during the summer 2011 transfer period. A few days earlier, Club Brugge had just missed out on the transfers of Dalibor Veselinović and Jelle Van Damme and therefore wanted to make sure Meunier would not become the third near miss. Club Brugge managed to complete the deal before any of the several other interested Belgian clubs (Anderlecht, Standard Liège, Sint-Truiden and Zulte Waregem) could.[2]

On 31 July 2011, Club Brugge played its first match of the 2011–12 season against Westerlo in which Meunier was allowed to play the final 20 minutes. Meunier played a decent match, getting on the score sheet in the process.[3] At the time, Meunier was played as a striker or right winger, before he was formed into a right back by his following coaches Juan Carlos Garrido and Georges Leekens due to a lack of players of that position after the injuries of his teammates Tom Høgli and Davy De Fauw.

Meunier also played the whole final of the Belgian Cup final against rivals RSC Anderlecht, which resulted in a 2-1 win for Brugge, winning their first prize since 2007.

As a rightback, Meunier is often recognized by his very offensive playing style, while also doing his defensive job flawlessly. This is of course declarable by his past as a winger, which gives him the ability to run down his line for 90 minutes and assist and score a few goals per season.

International career

In September 2011, Meunier was called up for the Belgium U21 team and scored in the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification match against Azerbaijan U21.[4] On 14 November 2013, Meunier made his debut for the Belgian national team in a home friendly match against Colombia, which was preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He played the whole game and performed quite decently, but made a mistake by letting opposing striker Radamel Falcao through the offside trap and thus allowing the opening goal. The game eventually resulted in a 0-2 loss for Belgium. He was also brought in via the substitutes bench in 2 other friendlies, against Japan (2-3 loss) and Iceland (3-1 win).

Controversy

Meunier has been the subject of a few fierce discussions, mainly with his own fans, after a statement from local newspaper Het Nieuwsblad that he has always been a great Anderlecht-supporter ever since he was a little boy. Since Anderlecht is Club Brugge's greatest rival, this quickly became a problem for many of the Brugge-fans. Meunier himself always denied that he has ever stated this, which was later confirmed by Brugge-president Bart Verhaeghe in news- and politics show "De Zevende Dag" on the Belgian public Dutch-language tv-channel Eén.

References

  1. ↑ http://clubbrugge.be/en/players/first-team/players/thomas-meunier/stats#tabs
  2. ↑ "Final trick of Devroe: the signing of Meunier" (in Dutch). sporza.be. 2011-01-18.
  3. ↑ "Meunier scores at debut in first division:"Most beautiful day"" (in Dutch). sporza.be. 2011-08-01.
  4. ↑ "U21 beat Azerbaijan in EC qualification" (in Dutch). sporza.be. 2011-09-06.

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