Odilon Polleunis (1 May 1943 – 20 September 2023), nicknamed Lon, was a Belgian
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
er who won the
Belgian Golden Shoe in 1968 while at
Sint-Truiden. He played 22 matches and scored 10 goals for the
Belgium national team between 1968 and 1975.
Club career
Lon Polleunis played most of his career for Sint-Truiden. The stylish attacker, also originating from
Sint-Truiden, became a real club icon. With 89 goals, he is still the club's top scorer in the first division.
In the mid-1970s, "Lon" moved to
RWDM, with which he won the Belgian title in 1975.
International career
Polleunis started in a 2–1 friendly win against the
Netherlands on 7 April 1968. He scored on his debut and the first of his seven goals in his first five International games, including a hat-trick against
Finland and two against
Yugoslavia in World Cup qualifiers in October 1968.
At the
1970 FIFA World Cup
The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...
Polleunis came on as substitute in Belgium's win against
El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
and started against
Mexico in the third game replacing
Raoul Lambert
Raoul Lambert (born 20 October 1944) is a Belgian retired footballer who played as a striker. He finished top scorer of the Belgian First Division with 17 goals in 1972 while playing for Club Brugge. He also scored 18 goals in 33 matches with ...
.
Death
Polleunis died of heart failure on 20 September 2023, at the age of 80.
Honours
Sint-Truiden
*
Belgian First Division runner-up:
1965–66
*
Belgian cup runner-up: 1970-71
RWD Molenbeek
*
Belgian First Division:
1974–75
*
Jules Pappaert Cup: 1975
*
Amsterdam Tournament: 1975
Belgium
*
UEFA European Championship third place:
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
Individual
*
Belgian Golden Shoe: 1968
*
Man of the Season (Belgian First Division): 1971–72
* Honorary Citizen of Sint-Truiden: 2021
References
External links
*
1943 births
2023 deaths
Sportspeople from Sint-Truiden
Belgian men's footballers
Footballers from Limburg (Belgium)
Men's association football forwards
Belgium men's international footballers
1970 FIFA World Cup players
UEFA Euro 1972 players
R.W.D.M. Brussels F.C. players
Belgian Pro League players
Sint-Truidense V.V. players
R.W.D. Molenbeek (1909) players
K.S.K. Tongeren players
Sint-Truidense V.V. managers
Deaths from congestive heart failure
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