Paul Van Himst
| File:Paul vanhimst.jpg | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Paul Van Himst | ||
| Position(s) | "Hole" | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Retired | ||
Paul Van Himst (born in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, October 2, 1943) was a talented Belgian football midfielder and a football manager. He is now retired, and still supports R.S.C. Anderlecht, his former team. He was nicknamed Polle Gazon (Polle is Paul in Brussels dialect and Gazon means lawn in French) due to the large number of fouls committed on him. He played in the match Belgium-Netherlands in 1964 with 10 fellows from the Anderlecht team after the substitution of goalkeeper Delhasse by Jean Trappeniers.
Van Himst won the Belgian championship 8 times, all of them with Anderlecht. He played his first professional season in 1959-60, with that club, for which he scored 233 goals in 457 matches (16 seasons). He then played for RWDM (another club from Brussels) in 1975-76 and for Eendracht Aalst (then in second division) the next season.
"Polle Gazon" scored 30 goals in 81 matches (between 1960 and 1974) for the Belgian national team, which make him Belgium topscorer with Bernard Voorhoof and the fifth most capped player. He made his debut on October 19, 1960 in Sweden and was part of the team who qualified for the 1970 World Cup. Van Himst then helped Belgium to reach the third place of the Euro 1972. He also holds the record of Golden Shoe awards (with 4).
As a manager, Van Himst worked notably for Anderlecht and the national team which he led to the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Belgium by the Belgian Football Association as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. [1]
Trivia
Van Himst played a role in John Huston's movie Escape to Victory (1981).