Dion-Johan Chai Cools (born 4 June 1996) is a Malaysian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Czech club

FK Jablonec FK Jablonec () is a Czech professional football club based in Jablonec nad Nisou. The club has played in the top league of Czech football, Czech First League, since 1994. History Jablonec played its first season of top league football in the 19 ...

and the Malaysia national team. At club level, he has played in Belgium and Denmark for OH Leuven,

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

and

FC Midtjylland FC Midtjylland (, "Central Jutland") is a Danish professional football club based in Herning and Ikast in the western part of Jutland. The club is the result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad. Midtjylland competes in the Danish Su ...

. Cools has represented Belgium at youth level with 28 caps, but chose to play for the Malaysian national football team at senior level. He made his senior debut for Malaysia on 3 June 2021.

Early life

Cools was born to a Belgian father and Malaysian

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hun ...

mother in Kuching, before the couple moved to Belgium after their marriage more than 20 years ago. He spent time with several Belgian clubs during his youth career before debuting in professional level with OH Leuven in 2014.

Club career

Early years

Cools started his career with Tempo Overijse, but soon moved to OH Leuven as a 9-years-old. In 2010, he joined the

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as th ...

youth team. After a season, he returned to the OH Leuven youth academy in 2013. He signed his first professional contract with the club in July 2014 after he finished his secondary school.

OH Leuven

On 3 August 2014, Cools made his debut in the first team of OH Leuven, competing in the

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Asso ...

. He was in the starting lineup for the away match against

Racing Mechelen K.R.C. Mechelen is a Belgian association football club from Mechelen in the Antwerp province. It is a long-time rival of KV Mechelen. The club's best position ever is a second place in the first division 1951–52. KRC Mechelen also reached t ...

. In May 2015, he participated with OH Leuven in the final round for promotion. Cools did not miss a single minute of the final round and won promotion to the

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

again with the club.

Club Brugge

On 23 June 2015, Cools signed a four-year contract with

. He won two Belgian national titles and twice the

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champio ...

. Cools became a starter under head coach Michel Preud'homme in the 2016–17 season due to poor performances by former Dutch international Ricardo van Rhijn, who had initially become the starter after the departure of regular right-back

Thomas Meunier Thomas André A. Meunier (born 12 September 1991) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Borussia Dortmund and the Belgium national team. Club career Virton Born in Sainte-Ode, Belgium, Meunier began playing ...

Paris-Saint Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As ...

. Cools also remained a starter under new coach Ivan Leko, with whom he was reunited after his time with OH Leuven. Cools would, however, later become benched after the emergence of Clinton Mata at the position.

Midtjylland

On 31 January 2020, Cools signed a three-year contract with Midtjylland in the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each y ...

. He made his debut for the club on 17 February in a 2–0 win over

Lyngby Kongens Lyngby (, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping street and the site ...

. Cools scored his first goal for the club on 14 February 2021, the only goal of the match in a win over

Horsens Horsens () is a city on the east coast of Jutland region of Denmark. It is the seat of the Horsens municipality. The city's population is 61,074 (1 January 2022) and the municipality's population is 94,443 (), making it the 8th largest city in D ...

in the Superliga. Cools and FC Midtjylland have mutually agreed to cancel his contract with the club on 9 September 2022, making him a free agent.

Zulte Waregem (loan)

On 4 January 2022, Cools was loaned out to

Zulte Waregem Sportvereniging Zulte Waregem (), commonly known as Zulte Waregem or by their nickname Essevee (), is a Belgian professional football club based in Waregem, West Flanders. Zulte Waregem plays in the Belgian First Division A. Their highest finish ...

by Midtjylland until the end of 2021–22 season as Cools was looking for more playing time, according to Midtjylland's director of football.

FK Jablonec

On 12 September 2022, Cools has signed for Czech club

on a short-term deal. He stated that the motivation behind the move is to get more playing time as his former club, Midtjylland, decided to switch to a different playing system, which guaranteed Cools less playing time.

International career

He was called up for

2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification The 2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition played in 2014 and 2015 to determine the seven teams joining Greece, who qualified automatically as hosts, in the 2015 UEFA European Und ...

by Belgian Under-19 national team coach, Gert Verheyen. He is also eligible to play for Malaysia through his mother's bloodline. On 1 June 2021, Cools was announced as the newest addition to Malaysia's 26-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers match against the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...

, after documentation regarding his eligibility was completed with FIFA and the

AFC AFC may stand for: Organizations * Action for Children, a UK children's charity * AFC Enterprises, the franchisor of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits * Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution * A ...

. The owner of Johor Darul Ta'zim,

Tunku Ismail Idris Major General Tunku Ismail Idris Abdul Majid Abu Bakar Iskandar ibni Sultan Ibrahim Ismail (Jawi alphabet, Jawi: تونكو إسماعيل إدريس عبدالمجيد أبو بكر إسكندر ابن سلطان إبراهيم إسماعيل; b ...

is said to play a significant role in convincing Cools to choose Malaysia as the national team he wanted to represent at the senior level. He debuted with Malaysia in a 4–0 loss to UAE on 3 June 2021. Cools scored his first international goal in Malaysia's final AFC 2023 Asian Cup Qualifiers match against Bangladesh, helping Malaysia secure a 4–1 win, which confirmed Malaysia's AFC Asian Cup qualification for the first time by merit in 42 years. Cools was named as the man of the match.

Personal life

Dion Cools and Melissa Schelfhout had a child named Liam-Zayn Cools, before getting married on 6 May 2022.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

International senior goals

Honours

OH Leuven *

Belgian Second Division play-offs The Belgian Second Division play-offs were a series of playoff matches to decide promotion to the Belgian Pro League, organised between 1974 and 2015. Following a large reform of the Belgian football league system at the end of the 2015–16 season ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

Club Brugge *

: 2015–16, 2017–18 *

: 2016,

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Midtjylland *

: 2019–20

References

External links

Dion Cools
at soccerstats247
Dion Cools
at ultimatealeague {{DEFAULTSORT:Cools, Dion 1996 births Living people People from Kuching Malaysian people of Chinese descent Malaysian people of Hakka descent Malaysian footballers Malaysia international footballers Malaysian people of Belgian descent Malaysian emigrants to Belgium Belgian First Division A players Belgian First Division B players Danish Superliga players Oud-Heverlee Leuven players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Club Brugge KV players FC Midtjylland players S.V. Zulte Waregem players Association football fullbacks Malaysian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in Belgium FK Jablonec players Expatriate footballers in the Czech Republic Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic