#Deadspin #Belgium #hire #coach #Mark #van #Bommel #replace #Rudi #Garcia">Deadspin | Belgium hire coach Mark van Bommel to replace Rudi Garcia
June 14, 2010; Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA; Netherlands midfielder Mark van Bommel (6) talks with midfielder Wesley Sneijder (10) during Group E play against Denmark in the 2010 World Cup at Soccer City Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Groothuis/Witters Sport via Imagn Images
Mark van Bommel was named the new head coach of Belgium’s national team.
van Bommel will take over on August 15 and lead the team through the 2028 European Championship, joined by assistant coaches Boudewijn Zenden, Maarten Martens and Reinier Robbemond, per a Belgium statement released Friday.
The 49-year-old replaces Rudi Garcia, who departed the role this week at the end of his 18-month contract, having led Belgium to the 2026 World Cup quarterfinals, where they were knocked out by eventual winner Spain. The loss ended an unbeaten run of 18 matches stretching back to a 3-1 loss to Ukraine in March 2025.
A former Bayern Munich and Barcelona midfielder, Van Bommel has been out of a head coaching spot since 2023-24, his second season at the helm of Belgian club Royal Antwerp. In his debut campaign, he led the club to its first league title in 66 years.
van Bommel also had coaching stints at VfL Wolfsburg (2021) and PSV Eindhoven (2018-19). He also served in assistant coaching positions for Saudia Arabia (2015-17) and Australia (2018).
“Belgium has outstanding players and enormous potential. Together with my coaching staff, we want to build a team that is disciplined, ambitious and brave enough to compete with the very best,” Van Bommel said.
The Dutch native takes over a Belgium side currently ranked eighth in FIFA’s world rankings. He will be asked to end Belgium’s disappointing run of early exits at the next European Championships, where they have not progressed beyond the quarterfinals since the 1996 expansion. In the two most recent tournaments, the team has lost in the round of 16 and the quarterfinals.
“Success is never guaranteed, but hard work, honesty and commitment are,” Van Bommell said.” We will give everything to help this team improve every day and make the Belgian people proud. I am looking forward to meeting the players, the staff and the supporters, and beginning this new chapter together.”
They got attention for all the wrong reasons on Thursday. Second-year linebacker Nic Scourton went down early in the first practice on a non-contact injury, which was later revealed to be a torn ACL that will end his season before it began. Largely overlooked in the greater discussion of the NFL, Scourton had a huge rookie campaign for the Panthers that saw him finish with 47 tackles, 5.0 sacks, and 4 QB hits in only eight starts. Doing more than enough to earn playing time, Scourton was expected to take a massive step in his second year across from free agent Jaelan Phillips, whom Carolina spent big money on in free agency to bolster their pass rush.
Now that dream is over, but that wasn’t the only bad news out of Charlotte this week. Veteran right tackle Taylor Moton was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung that will lead to him starting the season on the PUP list, with the tentative plan to have rookie Monroe Freeling take over the spot in his absence. This exacerbates issues along the offensive line, with the Panthers still waiting to see when left tackle Ikem Ekwonu can return to action as he recovers from a ruptured patellar tendon he suffered in the playoffs. It’s expected that Ekwonu will suit up “at some point this season” according to GM Dan Morgan, but there’s no real timeline on that possibility.
If you needed a cherry on top then Pro Bowl cornerback Jaycee Horn is also hurt, recovering from a foot injury he sustained while running which required stitches. He’s expected to return soon, but it’s just a little extra salt in the wound.
The trench issues are the real story here, and it’s a mess for Carolina. If there was one position on either side of the ball they couldn’t sustain injuries it was EDGE rusher and offensive tackle — now they’re in flux at both positions. The injury to Scourton is a massive bummer for Panthers fans, but it’s more or less a continuation of the pass rush issues they’ve faced for several years now. The absenses at offensive tackle is the real problem. Bryce Young has been without any form of continuity on the line since arriving in Carolina, and this promised to be the first year he’d have some semblance of reliability — that’s gone now, and will put even more pressure on the QB entering his fourth year.
Carolina has just under two weeks before they face the Cardinals in the NFL Hall of Fame game. It’s hardly something to get too worked up over, but there is a reality where the Panthers need to show some fight in that game, at least from the rotational players who are now getting called up, otherwise, we might be sounding the alarm bells about this team in August.
They got attention for all the wrong reasons on Thursday. Second-year linebacker Nic Scourton went down early in the first practice on a non-contact injury, which was later revealed to be a torn ACL that will end his season before it began. Largely overlooked in the greater discussion of the NFL, Scourton had a huge rookie campaign for the Panthers that saw him finish with 47 tackles, 5.0 sacks, and 4 QB hits in only eight starts. Doing more than enough to earn playing time, Scourton was expected to take a massive step in his second year across from free agent Jaelan Phillips, whom Carolina spent big money on in free agency to bolster their pass rush.
Now that dream is over, but that wasn’t the only bad news out of Charlotte this week. Veteran right tackle Taylor Moton was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung that will lead to him starting the season on the PUP list, with the tentative plan to have rookie Monroe Freeling take over the spot in his absence. This exacerbates issues along the offensive line, with the Panthers still waiting to see when left tackle Ikem Ekwonu can return to action as he recovers from a ruptured patellar tendon he suffered in the playoffs. It’s expected that Ekwonu will suit up “at some point this season” according to GM Dan Morgan, but there’s no real timeline on that possibility.
If you needed a cherry on top then Pro Bowl cornerback Jaycee Horn is also hurt, recovering from a foot injury he sustained while running which required stitches. He’s expected to return soon, but it’s just a little extra salt in the wound.
The trench issues are the real story here, and it’s a mess for Carolina. If there was one position on either side of the ball they couldn’t sustain injuries it was EDGE rusher and offensive tackle — now they’re in flux at both positions. The injury to Scourton is a massive bummer for Panthers fans, but it’s more or less a continuation of the pass rush issues they’ve faced for several years now. The absenses at offensive tackle is the real problem. Bryce Young has been without any form of continuity on the line since arriving in Carolina, and this promised to be the first year he’d have some semblance of reliability — that’s gone now, and will put even more pressure on the QB entering his fourth year.
Carolina has just under two weeks before they face the Cardinals in the NFL Hall of Fame game. It’s hardly something to get too worked up over, but there is a reality where the Panthers need to show some fight in that game, at least from the rotational players who are now getting called up, otherwise, we might be sounding the alarm bells about this team in August.
#Panthers #nightmare #opening #training #camp">The Panthers had a nightmare opening to training camp
The Carolina Panthers are trying to establish their legitimacy in 2026. NFC South winners by default last season with a paltry 8-9 record, it took layers of tiebreakers to settle the pecking order in the division between Carolina, Tampa, and Atlanta. Sure, the Panthers almost knocked off the Rams in the Wild Card round, but nobody remembers or cares about that now — its all about this season, and that made the start to the Panthers’ campaign critical to establish themselves as a team to watch.
They got attention for all the wrong reasons on Thursday. Second-year linebacker Nic Scourton went down early in the first practice on a non-contact injury, which was later revealed to be a torn ACL that will end his season before it began. Largely overlooked in the greater discussion of the NFL, Scourton had a huge rookie campaign for the Panthers that saw him finish with 47 tackles, 5.0 sacks, and 4 QB hits in only eight starts. Doing more than enough to earn playing time, Scourton was expected to take a massive step in his second year across from free agent Jaelan Phillips, whom Carolina spent big money on in free agency to bolster their pass rush.
Now that dream is over, but that wasn’t the only bad news out of Charlotte this week. Veteran right tackle Taylor Moton was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung that will lead to him starting the season on the PUP list, with the tentative plan to have rookie Monroe Freeling take over the spot in his absence. This exacerbates issues along the offensive line, with the Panthers still waiting to see when left tackle Ikem Ekwonu can return to action as he recovers from a ruptured patellar tendon he suffered in the playoffs. It’s expected that Ekwonu will suit up “at some point this season” according to GM Dan Morgan, but there’s no real timeline on that possibility.
If you needed a cherry on top then Pro Bowl cornerback Jaycee Horn is also hurt, recovering from a foot injury he sustained while running which required stitches. He’s expected to return soon, but it’s just a little extra salt in the wound.
The trench issues are the real story here, and it’s a mess for Carolina. If there was one position on either side of the ball they couldn’t sustain injuries it was EDGE rusher and offensive tackle — now they’re in flux at both positions. The injury to Scourton is a massive bummer for Panthers fans, but it’s more or less a continuation of the pass rush issues they’ve faced for several years now. The absenses at offensive tackle is the real problem. Bryce Young has been without any form of continuity on the line since arriving in Carolina, and this promised to be the first year he’d have some semblance of reliability — that’s gone now, and will put even more pressure on the QB entering his fourth year.
Carolina has just under two weeks before they face the Cardinals in the NFL Hall of Fame game. It’s hardly something to get too worked up over, but there is a reality where the Panthers need to show some fight in that game, at least from the rotational players who are now getting called up, otherwise, we might be sounding the alarm bells about this team in August.
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