Axel Witsel - Belgian leader

Axel Witsel is one of the most successful Belgian players of our time. But it's no secret that he did not immediately become a star - he had to go a long way before he could reach the highest level. And if you do not know the history of this player, then with the help of this article you can get to know her. You will find out which clubs Axel Witsel played, what he achieved with them, what his achievements in the team and much more.

Carier start

Axel Witsel was born on January 12, 1989 in Belgium and for a long time was not considered a football school as a promising player. Only at a rather mature age, at the age of fifteen, did he become stable and good at showing off at the academy of the main club in his hometown of Liege ("Standard"), thanks to which he received an invitation to the youth team. There he spent two years before he reached the age of majority in 2006 - then he was offered a professional contract, which he immediately signed. It was then that Axel Witsel became a professional football player, but he was not one of those brilliant young athletes who already at the age of 18 are buying for tens of millions. He had a lot to work on himself.

The game for "Standard"

In his first season Axel did not get enough practice because he was still too young, but he had many chances to show himself. And he, of course, took advantage of them. Axel Witsel is a footballer who always fights to the last. For a long time he was considered one of the best central midfielders in the world, but this could not have been achieved had he not been laid out in full on the Standard program. There he spent five seasons, during which he played 183 matches and scored 42 goals. The third season was the most successful, because thanks to the efforts of the ascending genius, the club reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League. However in the Belgian Championship there was a failure - after the victory in the previous year, "Standard" took only the sixth place. In his last season for this club, Witsel managed to win the Belgian Cup, so he quietly moved to Lisbon's Benfica in 2011, paying nine million euros for it.

Going to Benfica

It was in Benfica, where Axel Witsel, whose photographs began to appear everywhere in Belgian and foreign football magazines, got to the age of 22, he began to unfold as a real football genius. In many ways, thanks to him, the Portuguese club was able to reach the Champions League quarter-finals, and also take second place in the Championship of Portugal. However, it turned out that for Witsel this club was only a step into the great future, because the game was joined by the St. Petersburg "Zenith", whose money, thanks to the sponsorship of Gazprom, was much more than that of Benfica. Therefore, the Russian club was able to offer the Portuguese player as much as forty million euros, which is more than four times what Benfica paid a year earlier to Standard. Vitsel's "Zenith" attracted an impressive salary, so in 2012, the transfer of Axel to a new club.

The leader of "Zenith"

What did Axel Witsel achieve in the new club? "Zenith" is one of the strongest Russian football clubs, so there out of strong foreign players was not only Axel - Petrograders that summer held another multimillion transfer, signing a contract with the Brazilian striker Hulk. Witsel was lucky - in Zenit his compatriot Nicholas Lombaerts was already playing , and there were also two Portuguese - Bruno Alves and Liush Netu. Given that Axel spent the last year in Portugal, it helped him settle in the club and quickly become one of the leaders of the midfield.

For four seasons in the Russian team Axel spent 156 matches, scoring 26 goals. The most successful season is 14/15, when Zenit finally managed to win the Russian Championship after two years with silver medals, and also to reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League, where the club lost to the future tournament winner, the Spanish Sevilla. In early August, there were rumors that Witsel Axel was leaving Zenit, with Turin's Juventus referring repeatedly to the proposal to transfer to the Russian club. But Axel decided that he would be better where he had already played four years, so he did not go to Italy and will continue to play for Zenit.

National team appearances

Axel Witsel is one of the key players of the Belgian national team - more performances for the team than he has, there is only Ian Vertonghen. Witsel played 74 games for the national team, making his debut in its composition in the distant 2008 in a friendly against Italy.

Unfortunately, the times of the strong Belgian national team passed, and then the team could not get into any major tournament - in 2008, 2010 and 2012 the Belgians remained outside the World and European Championships. And only in 2014, when a new generation of talented players arrived in time, the Belgian national team made their way to the World Cup, where they managed to go quite far ahead - to the quarterfinals. Witsel played in two of the three matches of the group, as well as in both playoff confrontations, including in the quarterfinal match, where the Belgians lost to the future finalists - the Argentines.

In March 2016, Axel first led his team on the field in a friendly against the Portuguese national team with a captain's armband . As for the European Championship in 2016, here the Belgians managed only to repeat their achievement in 2014 - they reached the quarterfinals, where they lost to the dark horse, the Welsh national team. This time Witsel played all the matches "from call to ring", scoring in the group stage of the national team of Ireland.

Achievements

For his long career Axel Witsel twice became champion of Belgium with "Standard" and with the same club once won the Belgian Cup. With "Benfica" for one year he managed to win only the League Cup, but with "Zenith" he managed to win once the Russian Championship and once the Cup of Russia.