One of the members of Belgium’s legendary 1986 World Cup team Stéphane Demol has died of a heart attack. The 57-year-old who started his professional career with RSC Anderlecht, scored a legendary goal for his country against the USSR at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
Stéphane Demol joined Anderlecht’s youth team aged 14 and made his first team debut for the club in 1984. After three league titles (1985, 1986, 1987) and a Belgian Cup Final win with RSC Anderlecht he left Belgium for the Italian club Bologna in 1988.
A year later, he signed for FC Porto. While with Porto Stéphane Demol won the Portuguese championship in 1990. After a spell with Toulouse he returned to Belgium in 1991 and spent two seasons with Standard de Liège. While with Standard he lifted the Belgian Cup for the second time in his career in 1993.
After a season with Cercle Brugge, Stéphane Demol spent another period playing abroad before concluding his playing career in the low echelons of Belgian football with Halle.
He gained a total of 38 international caps and played at 2 World Cups (1986 and 1990). He scored 1 goal for Belgium, in the round of 16 at the 1986 World Cup against the USSR. Then Belgium made it to the semi-finals eventually finishing 4th, the Red Devils' second-best ever World Cup performance.
Career as a coach
Stéphane Demol became a coach in 2000. He became head coach at Sporting Charleroi in 2009 and also served as T2 at Standard de Liège (2005-2006). From 2006 to 2008 Stéphane Demol was T2 of the national team alongside Réné Vandereycken.
In addition to clubs and the national team here in Belgium, Stéphane Demol also coached teams in several foreign countries including Cyprus, Greece, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.