Hein Vanhaezebrouck
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 16 February 1964 | ||
| Place of birth | Kortrijk, Belgium | ||
| Club information | |||
Current team | KAA Gent (manager) | ||
| Teams managed | |||
| Years | Team | ||
| 2000–2002 | Lokeren (assistant) | ||
| 2003 | SWI Harelbeke | ||
| 2003–2006 | White Star Lauwe | ||
| 2006–2009 | KV Kortrijk | ||
| 2009 | RC Genk | ||
| 2010–2014 | KV Kortrijk | ||
| 2014– | KAA Gent | ||
Hein Vanhaezebrouck (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦɛin vɑnˈɦaːzəbruk]; born 16 February 1964) is a Belgian football coach, currently coaching KAA Gent.
Early life
Vanhaezebrouck was born in Kortrijk and raised in Lauwe.
Career
Hein Vanhaezebrouck is a former player of, among others KV Kortrijk, KRC Harelbeke en Sporting Lokeren.
Vanhaezebrouck became the coach of soccer team KV Kortrijk on 1 July 2006. He replaced Manu Ferrera at that time. In the season 2005–06, he was still head coach of White Star Lauwe. Before, he also coached Sporting West. Hein Vanhaezebrouck is a coach who always wants to play-offensively. During the World Championship Soccer 2006, he was also an analyst and co-commenter on VT4 and since a few years, he is also an analyst on Sporting Telenet. In the season 2007–08 Vanhaezebrouck won the title with Kortrijk in Second Division. In the Belgian Cup, Kortrijk finished in the quarter finals against AA Gent, despite a 5–1 victory in the home game. This confrontation and the offensive play of Kortrijk aroused the interest of AA Gent to succeed Trond Sollied as head coach. However, at the end of April 2008, Vanhaezebrouck signed a contract renewal of two years (until 2010) at Kortrijk. Right there, he became well known for the acquisition of Google-striker Istvan Bakx. Vanhaezebrouck discovered Bakx by Internet browser Google.
At the start of the 2009–10 season, Vanhaezebrouck went to KRC Genk. Right there, he failed at the start, which created doubts about him rising. He was fired as coach of KRC Genk on 29 November 2009. At that time, Genk was 12th in the ranking after 16 games. His successor was Franky Vercauteren.
In June 2010, Vanhaezebrouck decided to return to KV Kortrijk in the 2010–11 season. In that season, the team needed to be satisfied with a 10th spot in the rankings. The next year, the team played Play-off 1 and reached the cup final, losing it against Sporting Lokeren with a 1–0 score. On 10 May 2013, it was announced that he re-signed a contract at KV Kortrijk.
In May 2014, he decided to leave KV Kortrijk for KAA Gent. There, he reached his biggest success, as he won, after his championships with Kortrijk in Third and Second Division, also the championship with Gent in First Division in 2015, after a 2-0 victory against Standard Liège, and met European success with KAA Gent, in both the UEFA Champions League, reaching the 2nd round (season 2015-2016), and in the UEFA Europa League, reaching the 3rd round (season 2016-2017).