Philippe Léonard

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Philippe Léonard
Personal information
Full name	Philippe Léonard
Date of birth	(1974-02-14) 14 February 1974
Place of birth	Liège, Belgium
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Left back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1992–1996	Standard Liège	124	(3)
1996–2003	Monaco	99	(3)
2004	Nice	14	(0)
2004–2006	Standard Liège	55	(3)
2006–2007	Feyenoord	2	(0)
2008	Rapid Bucureşti	10	(0)
Total		304	(9)
National team
1994–2006	Belgium	26	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Philippe Léonard (born 14 February 1974 in Liège) is a retired Belgian footballer who played as a left defender.

After playing most notably for Standard Liège and Monaco, he rarely appeared for his following four teams (including Standard again) in a 16-year professional career.

Léonard represented Belgium at Euro 2000, being an international for more than one decade.

Club career

Léonard started his professional career at Standard de Liège. There, alongside Régis Genaux and Michaël Goossens, he was part of The Three Musketeers generation (with Roberto Bisconti playing a smaller role), hailed for their sporting talent but with a troublesome character.

He won the Belgian Cup in 1993, only 19, having scored in the final (Standard 2 – R. Charleroi SC 0), and also helped the side to two runner-up league places (1992–93 and 1994–95), each time bowing out to R.S.C. Anderlecht.

Subsequently, Léonard moved to France where he played with AS Monaco FC, also having an unassuming stint with OGC Nice. Whist at Monaco, he scored in the semifinal of the UEFA Champions League against Juventus FC, in a 4–6 aggregate loss, being the only Belgian player to score at this stage of the competition.

After two Ligue 1 titles with Monaco, to which he contributed with 38 games and two goals combined, Léonard returned to Standard, where he finished again second, in 2005–06, again to Anderlecht. Subsequently, he had short spells abroad, with Feyenoord Rotterdam and FC Rapid Bucureşti.

Léonard ended his career in 2009, at the age of 35, after not being able to find a new club. He subsequently took up writing columns in Belgian newspapers.

International career

Léonard played 26 times with Belgium (37 selections), and was in the team for the UEFA Euro 2000 (where he appeared in the 2–1 win for the hosts against Sweden). His debut coming in 1994, he was a regular fixture in the next two years, as right back Genaux, but Belgium failed to qualify for Euro 1996.

They both lost their place with the arrival of coach Georges Leekens, and Léonard was dropped in the last minute for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Because of a conflict with then coach Robert Waseige, he spent five years without being called after Euro 2000, so he also missed the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

Honours

Standard:
- Belgian Cup: 1992–93

Monaco:
- French League: 1996–97, 1999–2000
- French League Cup: 2002–03; Runner-up 2000–01
- French Super Cup: 1997, 2000

External links

Philippe Léonard French league stats at LFP.fr (French)
Philippe Léonard at National-Football-Teams.com
Philippe Léonard at footballzz.co.uk

v t e Belgium squad – UEFA Euro 2000

1 De Wilde 2 Deflandre 3 Valgaeren 4 Staelens (c) 5 Clement 6 Vanderhaeghe 7 Wilmots 8 Goor 9 E. Mpenza 10 Strupar 11 Verheyen 12 De Vlieger 13 Herpoel 14 Walem 15 Peeters 16 Nilis 17 Léonard 18 Van Kerckhoven 19 Van Meir 20 De Bilde 21 M. Mpenza 22 Hendrikx Coach: Waseige

Persondata
Name	Leonard, Philippe
Alternative names
Short description	Belgian footballer
Date of birth	14 February 1974
Place of birth	Liège, Belgium
Date of death
Place of death

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