Only a few members of Belgium‘s golden generation will be at this summer’s World Cup. Can the younger members of their squad help take the nation’s legends to glory?
Despite never having won anything at international level and only ever making it to the final of one major tournament – which they lost, at Euro 1980, to West Germany – hopes in Belgium are once again high going into the World Cup.
In a group alongside Egypt, Iran and New Zealand, it is almost being treated as a given that the Red Devils will make the knockout stages of the competition. However, there is no getting away from the truth that the 2026 World Cup will represent a transition from Belgium’s ‘golden generation’ to the ‘next generation’.
Local and international media have spoken about Belgium’s golden generation for, well, more than a generation. The national team has seen international stars like Eden Hazard, Dries Mertens, Vincent Kompany, Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembélé rise through the ranks before retiring without winning any silverware. Looking at the current squad selected by their pragmatic manager, Rudi Garcia, only Romelu Lukaku and Axel Witsel remain with the aim of delivering one of the country’s most-talked-about teams a prize after all this time.
The best achievement for the players belonging to Belgium’s most talented group is a third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup, after they were knocked out by eventual winners France in the semi-finals, before beating England in the third-place play-off.
In Witsel (136), Lukaku (124), De Bruyne (117) and Courtois (107), Belgium have four centurions in the squad. Only Qatar (7), Croatia (4) and Panama (4) named as many in their initial World Cup squads.
Looking at the ages of those four players, the 2026 World Cup will almost certainly be their final major tournament. Witsel (37 years and 154 days on the day of Belgium’s opening game) could become the oldest player to feature for the Red Devils at a major tournament, breaking the record currently held by Wilfried van Moer (37 years, 119 days at the 1982 World Cup). Courtois, De Bruyne and Lukaku are all either 33 or 34, and based on their respective campaigns at club level this season, it looks unlikely that their national team careers will be extended for much longer.
Courtois still played 51 games for Real Madrid in all competitions in 2025-26, but he missed his club’s most important matches of the season after coming off injured at half-time in the Champions League’s last 16.
Witsel played 32 matches in La Liga this season as part of the Girona side who were relegated to the Segunda División. Lukaku only played 64 (!) minutes for Napoli in 2025-26 due to injuries and multiple misunderstandings with manager Antonio Conte and club president Aurelio De Laurentiis, after having been a key member of the Partenopei’s Scudetto-winning side a year earlier. The striker – who has scored a whopping 89 international goals for Belgium – has struggled with his fitness in the past, and that was also a problem for Napoli teammate De Bruyne this season, too.
His first year in the south of Italy was a big disappointment. De Bruyne played just 21 matches in all competitions (a career-low), while also only contributing to nine goals (five goals, four assists), his lowest such tally since leaving Belgian outfit KRC Genk in 2012. This was largely due to the hamstring injury he sustained after scoring a penalty against eventual Serie A champions Internazionale in October.
After their disappointing seasons, Courtois, Witsel, Lukaku and De Bruyne will hope to help their country to international success this summer. But will they be taking their younger compatriots by the hand, or will it be the other way around?
One of Belgium’s biggest rising stars is De Bruyne’s former Manchester City teammate Matias Fernandez-Pardo. The Brussels-born forward was only recently welcomed back to the Belgian national team after he requested an allegiance switch to Spain in 2025. The 21-year-old scored eight times and provided four assists in 41 matches for the Ligue 1 side this season, and his inclusion in the squad has been perceived as a statement by the Belgian federation after losing top talents Jorthy Mokio (DR Congo) and Rayane Bounida (Morocco) in recent years.
At the other end of the pitch, with experienced defenders Vertonghen and Alderweireld having retired since the last World Cup, Garcia needed to rejuvenate his backline as well.
That’s where Amadou Onana, and
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