Nicolas Lombaerts

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Nicolas Lombaerts

Lombaerts in 2010
Personal information
Full nameNicolas Robert Christian Lombaerts
Date of birth (1985-03-20) 20 March 1985
Place of birthBrugge, Belgium
Height1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing positionCentre back
Club information
Current clubZenit Saint Petersburg
Number6
Youth career
Club Brugge
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
2004–2007Gent76(1)
2007–Zenit Saint Petersburg136(9)
National team‡
2000Belgium U161(0)
2001–2002Belgium U173(0)
2002–2003Belgium U1812(0)
2003–2004Belgium U1919(2)
2004–2007Belgium U2115(1)
2006–Belgium24(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 9 December 2013.

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 11 October 2013

Nicolas Lombaerts (born 20 March 1985 in Bruges) is a Belgian footballer who plays as a centre back for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg[1] and the Belgium national team.

Club career

Brugge

Lombaerts joined Club Brugge at young age where he went through all youth ranks. He claimed various league titles at young age as he was part of a strong generation at Brugge, with players such as Jason Vandelannoite, Glenn Verbauwhede and Thomas Matton.

Gent

As his ambition was to play in the starting lineup of a first division team as soon as possible and Club Brugge was not able to guarantee this, he moved to Gent where he soon was able to play almost every match in the 2005–06 Belgian First Division and also got his first appearance for the Belgium national football team. Apart from football, he was at that point still studying law at Ghent University. Several times he was selected for the Belgian national youth teams such as the Belgium national under-21 football team. Highlights were the 2004 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship and the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

Zenit

Lombaerts playing for Zenit in 2009

In July 2007, Lombaerts chose a lucrative transfer to the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg in Russia. At that point he quit his studies and chose for a football career. Zenit eventually won its first Russian league title with the 2007 Russian Premier League. At the beginning of 2008, Lombaerts was sidelined for over half a year as the result of a knee injury. In the meantime without him, his team won the 2007–08 UEFA Cup and he also missed the 2008 Summer Olympics where Belgium became fourth.

Lombaerts finally made his return to Zenit on 19 July 2009, coming on in the 71st minute for Aleksei Ionov against Terek Grozny. Even though Zenit were defeated 3-2, Lombaerts described the happiness of taking the pitch again as similar to "a small child's joy when walking into a shop full of sweets."[2] He then quickly became a fixture in defense for caretaker Anatoliy Davydov, helping Zenit win six consecutive matches to get back into the title hunt. On 29 November 2009, Lombaerts scored the game-winning goal against rival Spartak Moscow to put Zenit into the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League as third-place team in Russia.[3]

On 5 July 2010, Lombaerts signed a four-year contract to remain with Zenit.[4]

International career

He has made his debut in full internationals in May 2006 in a friendly against Saudi Arabia,[5] and played 3 matches in Euro 2008 qualifying.[6]

International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 2010-10-12 King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium  Austria 4 – 3 4–4 UEFA Euro 2012 Qualification
2 2011-09-06 King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium  United States 1 – 0 1–0 Friendly

Career honours

Club

Zenit St. Petersburg

Notes

  1. ↑ Lombaerts to add Zest to Zenit uefa.com
  2. ↑ "Николас Ломбертс: "Когда вышел на поле в Грозном, испытал этакую детскую радость"" (in Russian). sport-express.ru. 
  3. ↑ "Зенит 2-1 Спартак статистика" (in Russian). sports.ru. 
  4. ↑ "Ломбертс подписал новый контракт с "Зенитом"" (in Russian). sports.ru. 2010-07-05. 
  5. ↑ Lombaerts deal uefa.com
  6. ↑ Stats at transfermarkt.de

External links

FC Zenit Saint Petersburg – current squad
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