The Belgian midfielder Hans Vanaken (33) will play his hundredth (!) European match on Wednesday evening, and that is reason enough in Belgium to reflect on his special career. In an extensive article by The Latest News Former trainer Philippe Clement will be discussed, Vanaken will be compared to Kevin De Bruyne and alleged interest from Ajax and his old club PSV will also be discussed.
“Hans can make a difference in any team with running people around him. Even at Manchester City he could play perfectly, I am really convinced of that,” begins Clement, who coached Vanaken at Club Brugge for years. The Latest News.
Clement was not only Vanaken’s coach, but was also often a trainer of the Belgian playmaker’s opponent. “In my discussions he was always one of the points of attention. The only way to stop him was to close the passing lines or close the space in the back of the defense.”
‘Phenomenal, truly world-class’
Former Bruges manager and current technical director of the Belgian Football Association, Vincent Mannaert, also has words of praise for Vanaken. At Club Brugge, Vanaken was once tested in the Loughborough Soccer Passing Test, Mannaert reflects. “It showed that Hans scans phenomenally, truly at world level,” says Mannaert. “In Belgium there are actually only two who stand out so much: Hans and Kevin De Bruyne. Hans is incredibly intelligent.”
‘Ajax, PSV, West Ham and Dortmund’
Vanaken stayed at Club Brugge for many years, although there was also a lot of foreign interest in the past. According to Het Laatste Nieuws, Ajax and PSV, where he even played for several years as a youth player, have been interested in the Belgian playmaker on several occasions. But West Ham, which came knocking several times and bit its teeth at Club Brugge’s asking price, also turned out to be interested. Bruges asked for between 20 and 25 million euros, it is stated.
The biggest club to show interest in recent years was Borussia Dortmund, where coach Lucien Favre saw his ideal playmaker in Vanaken in 2018. However, a transfer was not an option for Club Brugge during that period. AS Monaco also thought about Vanaken, although that was mainly at the insistence of Clement, who would have liked to take him with him when he became a trainer. “But that was never an option because it was simply financially unfeasible. I knew how much Bart (Verhaeghe, ed.) and Vincent (Mannaert, ed.) wanted to keep him.”
Clement realizes that Vanaken would have received even more recognition if he had been born in a different era. “Hans has actually only had one big bad luck in his career, and that is that he was born in the same generation as Kevin De Bruyne. If it had not been for De Bruyne, Hans would have played more than 100 international matches and scored many more goals for the national team. Then even bigger teams would have come knocking.”
But that real top transfer did not happen. Although Clement knows that it could or perhaps even should have happened at some point. “Hans can already be very proud of the career he has made, but that could have earned him even more respect at home and abroad,” concludes his old trainer.
