Stijn De Smet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stijn De Smet
Personal information
Full name	Stijn Camiel De Smet
Date of birth	March 27, 1985 (1985-03-27) (age 23)
Place of birth	Bruges, Belgium
Height	183 cm
Playing position	attacking midfielder/forward
Club information
Current club	Cercle Brugge
Number	19
Youth clubs
	KSV Jabbeke Cercle Brugge
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2003-	Cercle Brugge	121 (25)
National team2
2005-2008 2008-	Belgium U21 Belgium	10 (3) 1 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 10 May 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 26 March 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Stijn De Smet (born March 27, 1985 in Bruges) is a Belgian professional football player. He currently plays for Cercle Brugge, where he is regarded as the most promising youth prospect and the best youth player at the team since Thomas Buffel.^{[citation needed]} De Smet usually plays as an attacking midfielder or forward. He was discovered by Cercle Brugge (as well as their rivals Club Brugge) at the age of 12 while playing for his local team, SV Jabbeke.

De Smet's big breakthrough came in the 2004-2005 season, being in the starting line-up 19 times. The season before, De Smet had only appeared in 6 matches in total. Since the 2004-2005 season, De Smet is being selected for the matches of the Belgian national under-21 team. He was also part of the squad that qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

In December 2006, Stijn De Smet was invited for a trial at Blackburn Rovers, the partner team of Cercle. Sadly for De Smet, a knee injury caught in the match at Anderlecht forced him to stay in Belgium.

De Smet was called up for Belgium for the first time for an unofficial friendly against Standard Liège, as a replacement for the injured Thomas Chatelle. De Smet played the last 10 minutes of the match. He was called up again for the friendly against Morocco. He started the match and thus received his first cap.

Sporting positions
Preceded by Darko Pivaljević	Cercle Brugge Topscorer alongside Tom De Sutter and Oleg Iachtchouk 2008	Succeeded by Incumbent

[edit] References

• Stijn De Smet player info at the official Cercle Brugge site (Dutch)
• Cerclemuseum.be (Dutch)

v • d • e Cercle Brugge – current squad 3 Portier • 5 Gombami • 7 Viane • 8 Tarumbwa • 9 Iachtchouk • 10 De Sutter • 11 Mahan • 12 Boi • 13 Wille • 14 Serebrennikov • 15 Eboigbe • 16 De Wulf • 17 Sergeant • 18 Snelders • 19 De Smet • 20 Gjuzelov • 21 Vandenbussche • 22 Nyoni • 23 Artz • 25 Verbist • — Buyse • — Catteeuw • — Coppens • — Fernández • — Schotte • — Slović • — Van Eenoo • — Viðarsson • Manager: De Boeck