A generation pain for Buffel

Sports Writer

Sunday 14 October 2012

PERSISTENT references to the emergence of Belgium's golden generation must get rather irritating if you are not part of it.

Eden Hazard is one of several Belgian players performing at the very highest level of club football Photograph: John Thys/AFP

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Stewart Fisher

But Thomas Buffel bears such indignities with remarkably good grace. The former Rangers midfielder is enjoying an Indian summer in his career in his homeland with Jupiler side Genk, but it is hardly a cause for surprise that such form has been insufficient for him to add to his haul of 35 caps for his country since a 2-1 friendly win against Bulgaria in May 2010. Given the attacking talents ahead of him in Marc Wilmots' squad list for Tuesday night's Group A showdown in the Konig Boudewijn Stadion in Brussels, the 31-year-old's best chance of an international call-up in the foreseeable future would appear to be either a change of nationality or a change of sport.

Belgium have always produced gifted football players – think Jan Ceulemans, Enzo Scifo, Franky Vercauteren, Jean Marie Pfaff or Luc Nilis – but Buffel fully accepts that they have never had so many at the same time, even in the halcyon days of the three decades ago, when they reached a European Championships final in 1980 and a World Cup semi-final in 1986. Losing the injured Marouane Fellaini and Romelu Lukaku would be damaging for some nations but it has hardly checked the stride of Wilmots' collection of footballing colossuses. Vincent Kompany and Thomas Vermaelen were two of the best defenders in the Barclays Premier League last year, Eden Hazard may well have been the best player in the French league, Jan Vertonghen and Dries Mertens lorded it over the rest of the Dutch league, Zenit St Petersburg thought enough of Alex Witsel at Benfica to spend £35m on his talents, Moussa Dembele is earning his spurs at Tottenham, and Everton new boy Kevin Mirallas was the top scorer in the Greek league. "It is true that it is very hard to get selected because there are so many younger players now," Buffel told the Sunday Herald. "I worked with Marc Wilmots when he was assistant manager to George Leekens and he was very positive about me, but Belgium has a lot of talented young players at big clubs now and they are really trying to grow a team for the future. In previous years Belgium always had good players, maybe two, three or four in every campaign, but now it has as much as maybe 15 or 16 players who can fight for a spot, and that is a real strength. Even if they miss a few players there are others who can come in and do the job."Buffel, whose club-mate Jelle Vossen could also come into contention for a striking place against Scotland on Tuesday, has watched the young talents make it through the ranks. "Even when he was younger, Vincent Kompany was already a top player," Buffel said. "He didn't have to grow in physical abilities, that was already his strength even when he was only a teenager."But technically and tactically he grew and was able to push the team forward. Hazard is a guy who leads with his skills and his actions. When he first came he wasn't one of the biggest but he got physically stronger. Some players have to wait a bit longer to get this physical presence." So how do you cope against such a multi-headed hydra of footballing menace? Well, firstly you hope that the pressure of living up to expectations might start getting to this group of players.Five major tournaments have come and gone since Belgium last reached a finals – they finished behind Germany and Turkey in Euro 2012 qualifying. There is a yearning among the public for that statistic to come to an end, which brings its own strains. Or at least it might do, if almost every one of their players wasn't currently playing in an environment where victories are demanded each week.The Belgians had a big friendly win against the Netherlands recently and are joint top of the group alongside Croatia after beating Serbia 3-0 in Belgrade on Friday night. "If you look at it on paper, the Belgium squad now has players at all the top teams," said Buffel, ahead of the his country's first meeting with Scotland for 11 years."But that is not a guarantee for victory. This is a good opportunity to qualify of course, but football has changed and there are no easy games any more. Every game you need to be at 100% to get a good result. Every week these players need to win their games for their club teams, so maybe the only pressure comes from the fact that they want it so badly themselves."Last year Belgium had all the same players and didn't manage to get the results so every game has to be played. Scotland have some good players as well. I think Darren Fletcher will be important, he is doing great at Man United and the midfield will be an important area. But in terms of the forward line, Belgium have definitely got more potential than Scotland."Buffel enjoyed his Scottish sojourn, even if it came to an end after a lengthy rehabilitation from knee surgery. Lack of international playing time or not, his club form at Genk – who won the Belgian league championship and are playing in the Europa League – has been a validation of sorts."I was sure I could still be a big player for Rangers after my injury, and I have showed now at a top team in Belgium that I can still be an important player," he said. "In football you have to make decisions and you don't regret them afterwards."

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A generation pain for Buffel

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