Where the reform originated
Michel Sablon served as assistant coach to the Belgian national team at the 1986, 1990, and 1994 World Cups before being appointed technical director of the football association in 2001. He initiated an assessment that was unprecedented in European football: he commissioned a scientific study into Belgian youth development.
Sablon enlisted several universities – Leuven, Gent, Louvain-la-Neuve, and Lüttich – to analyse Belgian youth football. A central figure in this work was Werner Helsen, Professor of Movement Science at KU Leuven. Helsen and his students analysed roughly 1,500 hours of video footage from youth fixtures: touches per player, passing lengths, build-up patterns, the proportion of long balls, and physical intensity. Young players wore heart rate monitors to evaluate match load across different pitch formats.
The findings were unequivocal. In 11v11 matches, children had very few touches of the ball, made minimal decisions, and rarely took shots on goal. Belgian youth football leaned on long balls because coaches prioritised winning matches and pitches were simply too large. The players learned what was required to win on the day – not what was needed to play football.
From these insights, Sablon drafted a blueprint that was officially ratified by the association in 2006. Prior to this, he had studied youth development in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, drawing lessons from Ajax and Barcelona. He also exchanged ideas with Matthias Sammer, who was overseeing Germany's reform at the time. The Belgian vision synthesised what worked elsewhere – tailored to a compact country without financial powerhouse clubs.
The five pillars of the vision
Mandated small-sided formats
Ever since the reform, Belgian children have played in small-sided formats: 5v5 in the youngest age groups, 8v8 during the transition stage, and 11-a-side only from roughly U13 onwards. The rationale came straight from Helsen's research: more touches, more 1v1 duels, and more shots on goal per child. That structure was far from standard in Belgium before the overhaul, and opposition from clubs was considerable.
4-3-3 as the national teaching system
Much like the Netherlands, Belgium mandated a single formation across all youth teams: a 4-3-3 with an attacking mindset. The rationale was not that it is inherently superior to all other setups, but that a shared formation creates a common language. A Belgian youth player moving to a new club stepped into identical tactical roles. A national U15 coach received players who had all been educated within the same tactical framework.
The vision also prescribed an overarching style of play: dominant possession, playing out from the back, purposeful dribbling as an encouraged weapon, and high pressing. Bob Browaeys, a long-serving national youth coach and co-author of the vision, remarked in 2018 that Roberto Martínez's senior side was playing precisely the brand of football the reform had mapped out two decades earlier.
Development over results
The vision redefined the fundamental objective of academy football: not winning games, but developing players. This was the Ajax philosophy, codified at national level. League tables for the youngest age groups were removed, and coaches were trained to view match scores as secondary. As with any widespread change, adoption was not seamless everywhere – but player development became the official benchmark.
Sports schools with double training sessions
The association established eight dedicated sports schools – Topsportscholen – where promising talents aged 14 to 18 train in the mornings in addition to their evening club sessions. This doubled their total practice time without compromising their schooling. These schools serve as Belgium's regionalised answer to Clairefontaine, decentralised and accessible across the country. Many key members of the golden generation came through this system.
A dedicated national centre
In Tubize, south of Brussels, the association constructed its national training centre, funded using proceeds from Euro 2000. It serves as the base where national teams across all age categories train, where coaching education is delivered, and where the national philosophy is passed on.
The clubs: Genk and Anderlecht
The reform established the framework. The actual players emerged from the clubs, with two leading the way.
Racing Genk
Genk is based in a former mining town in Limburg with around 65,000 residents. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, its academy produced an exceptional density of elite players unmatched by virtually any club of similar scale: Kevin De Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois, Divock Origi, Yannick Carrasco, Christian Benteke, Timothy Castagne, Leandro Trossard, Kalidou Koulibaly (who arrived as a young professional), Wilfred Ndidi, Sander Berge, Leon Bailey, and Bilal El Khannouss.
Genk does not boast an expansive catchment area that explains this output. Instead, what coaches and scouts consistently point to is an academy that embraced the national vision early, a scouting network reaching into Africa and Scandinavia, and a first-team pathway that gave youngsters genuine match minutes out of financial necessity. Genk is the Belgian Freiburg – patient, sustainable, and fundamentally reliant on its own youth pipeline.
Anderlecht
Anderlecht is Belgium's historical giant, located in Brussels and drawing upon the country's most fertile talent pool. Marketed as Purple Talents, the academy produced Vincent Kompany, Romelu Lukaku, Youri Tielemans, Leander Dendoncker, Jérémy Doku, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Zeno Debast, and many others. Adnan Januzaj and Charly Musonda left for England at a young age – typical examples of the persistent challenge Belgian clubs face when Premier League sides recruit top prospects at 15 or 16.
Anderlecht experienced a transitional phase from 2020: Vincent Kompany returned as player-manager, and while domestic dominance proved elusive, he trusted and integrated teenage academy players before departing for Burnley and subsequently Bayern Munich. While first-team form has fluctuated, the academy line continues to deliver.
Standard, Club Brugge, and the U23 teams
Standard Lüttich brought through Marouane Fellaini, Axel Witsel, and Michy Batshuayi. Club Brugge developed Charles De Ketelaere among others in the 2020s and currently stands as Belgium's financially strongest club. Both operate productive academies strictly aligned with the national philosophy.
Since the 2022/23 season, the U23 teams of the elite clubs – Club NXT, RSCA Futures, and Jong Genk – have competed in Belgium's second division, the Challenger Pro League. This follows the path taken earlier by Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands, which Germany has resisted: competitive senior football with league points on the line for 19-year-olds. Belgium pushed this through by association vote, overcoming pushback from smaller second-tier clubs.
The track record
The golden generation never lifted an international trophy. A third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup remains their best tournament result. In 2022, Belgium exited in the group stage; in 2024, in the round of 16. Critics frequently label them a wasted generation.
Roberto Martínez, national team manager from 2016 to 2022, viewed it through a different lens: a country of eleven million inhabitants led the FIFA rankings for four consecutive years, produced eight players with over one hundred caps, and saw twenty of them earn professional coaching licences. In his view, that constitutes a golden generation, regardless of silverware.
From a youth development perspective, the assessment is far clearer than through tournament silverware alone: from an era of repeatedly missing major tournaments, Belgium built a generation within fifteen years that starred across Europe's top leagues. While direct causality can never be fully isolated, it is more plausible than in almost any other national reform across Europe, simply because Belgium had no other structural advantages to explain such a sudden surge.
The criticisms
The subsequent generation runs thinner. Jérémy Doku, Loïs Openda, Charles De Ketelaere, Amadou Onana, Johan Bakayoko, Zeno Debast – talented players, but not quite at the world-beating level of peak De Bruyne, Hazard, or Courtois. Whether the reform sparked a unique wave or raised the baseline permanently remains debated. The vision was ratified in 2006; players who grew up entirely within it are now in their mid-twenties.
Talent drain to England. Belgian prospects frequently move to England at 15 or 16 because Premier League wages are compelling, and Brexit has complicated but not eliminated transfers of EU prospects. The critical final phase of academy development then takes place at Chelsea or Manchester rather than Genk or Anderlecht. The national vision has no regulatory mechanism to halt this.
The prescribed 4-3-3 has similar limitations to the Dutch model. It establishes an efficient common language, but it can restrict tactical flexibility. Several coaches in Belgian football now question whether a system defined two decades ago still meets modern demands.
Implementation was uneven. The elite academies applied the vision meticulously, while many grassroots clubs did not. The association could run courses and issue guidelines, but it could not police every local pitch. That remains a classic hurdle for any top-down reform.
Sablon moved on, but the infrastructure remains. Sablon eventually left the federation and later worked in Singapore, while Bob Browaeys remained for an extended period. Whether a reform heavily driven by individual visionaries remains resilient over the long haul is the question Belgium must answer over the next decade.
Application: What you can take away
This section reflects our practical interpretation for coaching.
Belgium is a prime example of what happens when a player development system is built on empirical data rather than dogma.
Count the data before you decide
Helsen's students scrutinised 1,500 hours of match footage before the association mandated new formats. You can adopt this approach in your own squad: during a 7v7 game, count how many ball contacts your least involved player gets. Then run the same count in a 4v4 drill. Let objective data guide your session design, not habit.
Use the grassroots reform as your argument
The reform introduced across German youth football from 2024/25 onwards mirrors the Belgian blueprint of 2006. If you encounter resistance within your club against small-sided formats – parents demanding league tables, or coaches missing 7v7 – Belgium offers the ultimate evidence: an entire nation embraced this path twenty years ago and developed the finest generation in its history.
Increase practice time, not physical exhaustion
The Topsportscholen provided Belgian talents with an additional morning session. That exact model isn't viable for grassroots clubs, but the core principle applies: if you want more contact hours with the ball, integrate them intelligently into daily routines rather than adding exhausting minutes to an evening session. Think about school holiday camps, developmental sessions in off-peak hours, or an optional technical session for players hungry for more.
A shared tactical language across your club
Prescribing a 4-3-3 translates well to a club structure: one preferred formation, taught across all age groups, with unified role definitions. It does not have to be 4-3-3; what matters is that your coaches pull in the same direction.
Remove the emphasis on results wherever you can
Belgium scrapped league tables in the youngest age brackets. Many other nations have followed. For the age categories above, your club must decide: are your U13s playing to win matches at all costs, or are they playing for long-term development? You can rarely achieve both simultaneously.
For governing bodies: the transition pathway is crucial
In 2022, Belgium integrated U23 sides into its second tier, overcoming significant resistance. Germany has yet to take this step nationwide. For anyone involved in association management: providing competitive senior football for young players is the single structural lever with the greatest developmental impact.
Key takeaways
- Between 2002 and 2012, Belgium missed every major tournament; by 2015, they topped the FIFA World Rankings. In between sat a comprehensive development reform approved in 2006.
- Michel Sablon subjected coaching to scientific analysis – Werner Helsen, KU Leuven, 1,500 hours of video – resulting in small-sided match formats, 4-3-3 as a teaching model, development over results, sports schools, and a national centre.
- Genk and Anderlecht became the standout academies: Genk patient and reliant on homegrown youth, Anderlecht drawing from the country's deepest talent pool.
- Since 2022, club U23 teams have played in the professional second division – the transition bridge still lacking in several other European leagues.
- The golden generation did not win a major title, and the subsequent generation is thinner. Whether the reform maintains permanent elite production remains an open question.
- What you can apply: measure instead of guessing, champion small-sided games, integrate training time into weekly routines, establish a unified club philosophy, and remove the pressure of league tables where possible.
What Belgium achieved nationally through an association mandate, you can establish across your age groups with Club OS: establish a clear playing identity and verify that it actually reaches your U9s. Setting that direction doesn't require a national federation – just committed leadership at your club.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources and further reading
- Interviews with Michel Sablon detailing the reform, published in The Guardian (2014), Bleacher Report (2018), and The Wall Street Journal (2018).
- Interviews with Bob Browaeys on the implementation of the vision and its link to the senior national side.
- Werner Helsen, KU Leuven: published studies on youth match formats and the 10,000-hour model in talent development.
- Royal Belgian Football Association: presentations regarding the youth development vision and the national centre in Tubize.
- Reports on the introduction of U23 teams into the Challenger Pro League in 2022.
- CIES Football Observatory: analytical reports on Belgian player development clubs.
Note on factual background: This overview of the reform is based on published interviews with key participants and secondary research. Specific match formats and age thresholds have been adjusted several times since 2006. The connection between the structural reform and the emergence of the golden generation is compelling, though impossible to prove in strict isolation.