good evening all,

i have recently been wondering why belgium seem to have enetered a golden generation of footballers. i have researched it but to no avail. it is curious how historically they seem like a pretty average team, but they have recently erupted into a golden era of footballers, with the likes of: januzaj, origi, hazard, lukaku, kdb, kompany, alderweireld, vertonghen, courtois, mignolet (not really), bakkali, chadli, benteke, yfc, vermalen, witsel, tielemans, nainggolan etc.

other countries seem to be entering an era of exceptional footballers as well, for example, croatia and france. though france seem to have always produced talent.

so im wondering how this happens? how does a nation suddenly produce football talents after being an average team for their whole existance? has it something to do with the nations domestic league? the youth academy of these domestic teams? a cultural shift to football as the countries most popular sport? or is it something else?

Matter of luck my friend! Each country has a golden generation of footballers it is up to them and their football national sides to make them unstoppable. Examples? Euro 2004 Greece ~ Euro 1992 Denmark. I personally don't know much about Denmark but the Greek squad had a bunch of talented players not like Messi, Ronaldo etc but we had the players to compete for a decent run in the cup and somehow we won it!

Also none of those players had the potential of KDB, Hazard, Lukaku, Januzaj but at our best we could match those players and get results.

@JozeMourinho With Belgium it isn't luck buddy. It is just good youth programs being put into place by their country.

In the past, countries didn't have a so called organized "system" for developing youth. The first nation to really see how important a youth system was and how useful it could be was the Netherlands. The Netherlands are a tiny nation but were able to produce some of the best teams in the past because of the system they had in the Eredivisie. All of the best dutch players were made into world class players in dutch youth systems when they were young. After this, they would then move on to other big European teams to be superstars. My point in all of this is that the dutch (who once again are a small nation) had in the past a way of producing players like no other nation. Over time bigger nations like Germany, Italy, and France started to develop this too in the 80's and 90's. Nowadays more and more nations like Belgium, England and Spain are doing similar things which is why they have strong young teams at the moment. Eventually, all countries will develop strong youth academies and we will go back to the 50's and 60's where the biggest countries like England, Czechoslovakia, (no longer exists) Yuogoslavia (no longer exists) ect. were dominant. Being a dutch fan, this is why the dutch have struggled lately. Other nations have all been able to catch up with us and start producing good homegrown talent meaning we no longer have an advantage and are back to having our size negatively effect us.

This video shows how strong the Ajax youth system is.

You may have noticed that I did not mention any South American teams. This is because most South American countries don't have to rely on having the best youth systems because players are being developed by their passion on the streets. I think this will have to be changed in the coming years because European countries are getting farther and farther advanced so South American teams will start falling behind. Brazil is already seeing this affect (2014 World Cup) and Argentina are going to really struggle soon because all their best players (accept Dybala) are over 27 and dieing off. (Messi, Aguero, Tevez, Higuain, Di Maria, Lavezzi, Romero, Zabaleta, Mascherano, Demichelis......)

Another effect this whole idea of youth systems will have is when the players hit their prime. Awhile back it was when you were around 30. Now it is around 28. More and more younger players are playing better at a younger age. Just from the Premier League, players like Lukaku, Mahrez, Hazard, Kane etc. are really dominating the league at such a young age. This all goes to show that players are being developed at a younger age meaning the hit their peak at a a younger age and their peak lasts much longer.

To sum this all up Belgium and many other sides are investing more and more into their youth causing the game of football to change drastically.

@louis_van_gaal Nonono mate my bad for not making myself clear completely agree with what you said but I meant it like this :

Each nation has a youth system some are fantastic some are pitiful but personal opinion every nation had its ''special'' generations. I mean there is no way we will see another Zlatan or many years will pass to see a striker like him. His football talent is unique and his goals and team history prove it. To produce Zlatan's for any youth system personally I find it impossible and you have to be really lucky to find a football player with ability and talent unforged by any football academy. I mean come on he is scoring with kung fu kicks what a lad he is! 34 years old still at TOP level and one of the most valuable players on his team! Yeah Zlatan was 100% improved by training etc but there is nobody on earth who can watch a ''zlatan'' goal and say I TEACHED HIM THAT! Btw I use Ibra as an example.

I didn't meant to disrespect any countries youth systems especially Dutch since it is the one I admire the most and dreamed to had a chance like that since I was kid!

@JozeMourinho What you said makes a lot of sense now. Luck is part of the factor but very small. For example, with Belgium, they are very similar in size with the Dutch and don't have a better youth system but are still miles ahead of them at the moment because like you said they have been gifted with a golden generation.

@louis_van_gaal Glad I cleared it out because reading your whole reply made me look a bit silly and uneducated in terms of football :P

and...Yeah Belgium is fantastic I hope I can see a Greece squad like that but with our youth systems treating talented players like garbage and bothering to develop only players that their parents have a big wallet that will never happen. I won't even bother to say why because I could write a book about it since I was a victim of it as well. Damn...Nostalgia...2004 Euro....

@JozeMourinho Nooooooo. That is not what I meant either. The first two lines were my reply to your first comment. The rest was just me explaining the history of youth systems and how they have changed overtime. It was just to let everyone my opinion on the whole Belgium situation. I know you are not silly and not uneducated. :)

@JozeMourinho Two of my best friends are greek and whenever we discuss football they always admit that Greece has a messy system at the moment. :(

By the way we should get back on topic about Belgium. :P

@louis_van_gaal Yeah I know but I stated my opinion quite bad and 1 line was enough to force me explain what I meant due to the fact I was a bit bored to analyse it :P, I also meant by saying completely agree with you is because you are completely spot on about the youth academies and our opinions about them are very similar :)

@LVG

Agree on all counts. Well thought out.

@SunFlash After the dutch started to flop, I spent so much to time trying to figure out why it was happening and this was what I discovered. Youth systems.