Record holder for the number of caps (157) with Belgium, Jan Vertonghen announced on Instagram on Friday that he was retiring from international duty. The 37-year-old Anderlecht defender is leaving the Red Devils following Euro 2024 where Belgium was eliminated in the round of 16 by France on Monday (1-0). Vertonghen scored the only own goal of the match in the 85th minute.
Jan Vertonghen shared photos of his first and last caps with the message “first, last. Thank you for all the memories, I lived my dream!”. In the process, the official Red Devils account reacted to the announcement of the national team’s number 5. “From the training grounds to the pitches, you showed us what it was like to be a real Red Devil. We will miss you, Jan”
The defender who played for Ajax, Tottenham, Benfica and Anderlecht earned his first cap with the Red Devils on 2 June 2007 during a qualifying match for Euro 2008, lost to Portugal (1-2). René Vandereycken was then coach. Vertonghen went on to accumulate 157 caps and play in six major international tournaments with Belgium. He reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the same stage of the competition at Euro 2016 in France.
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which marked the peak of the “golden generation” of Belgian football, the Devils finished third, only to be eliminated by France in the semi-finals. Vertonghen also played at Euro 2020, stopped for Belgium in the quarter-finals, and experienced elimination in the first round at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. At Euro 2024 in Germany, the central defender, injured at the start of the tournament, missed the first match and then started the next three.
In total, Vertonghen played 14 World Cup matches and 11 European Championship matches. A teammate of Vincent Kompany, Thomas Vermaelen, Toby Alderweireld, the left-footed Vertonghen often provided support as a full-back in the Red Devils’ defence. He scored ten goals in total: three in World Cup qualifiers, two in Euro qualifiers, three in international friendlies and two in the World Cup. In 2014, he scored the only goal in the match between Belgium and South Korea on the third day of Group H. In Russia in 2018, Vertonghen launched the Red Devils’ ‘Remontada’ once morest Japan in the round of 16. With Belgium trailing 0-2, Vertonghen scored with a header following 69 minutes, in a match that the Red Devils would eventually win 3-2 following a goal from Nacer Chadli in added time.
On 10 October 2017, Vertonghen became the most capped Red Devil in history in a 4-0 victory over Cyprus at the King Baudouin Stadium, a qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup. With 97 caps, he surpassed Jan Ceulemans and his 96 caps obtained between 1977 and 1991. Since then, eight other players from the “golden generation” have surpassed Ceulemans but few seem able to catch Vertonghen: Axel Witsel (132 caps) and Toby Alderweireld (127) are both 35 years old while Eden Hazard (126) ended his career in October. The road is also long for Romelu Lukaku, 31 years old and 119 caps.
At club level, Vertonghen has been playing for two seasons with Anderlecht, with whom he discovered the Jupiler Pro League. An experienced leader for the many hopefuls of the Brussels club, such as Zeno Debast, he has played 72 matches but his contract expired at the end of June, without it being known whether it will be extended.
