Gilbert Bailliu (4 September 1936 – 2 April 2023) was a Belgian

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 lea ...

who played as a striker, notably for Cercle Brugge and

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 29,042. They pl ...

Career

Bailliu started his career at hometown club Cercle Brugge. He made his début for the first team in 1954 against FC Izegem. At that time, Cercle were playing in third division, their lowest level ever. It would last until 1957 for Bailliu to play on a regular basis for the first team. This was due to his

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

and a knee injury. But after these problems, Bailliu would become a key player for the green and black side, becoming top scorer of the team for five seasons. This way, he had a great deal in achieving promotion back to the highest level of Belgian football in 1961. And even at the highest level, Bailliu would remain a ''goal scoring machine''. In 1966, Cercle were relegated to second division. But more disastrous were the corruption rumours spread by Lierse player Bogaerts, who said he had been approached by someone of Cercle. Although Cercle formally denied these rumours, they were sentenced to play in third division, back to where they were five years ago. Even though Cercle's vice-president won a

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

against the KBVB which declared him innocent in the corruption case, the damage had been done, and Cercle remained at the third level of Belgian football. This caused Cercle to lose important players, a.o. Gilbert Bailliu. He chose to leave Cercle for city rivals

alongside John Moelaert, a much-discussed transfer. He ended up with 98 goals scored in 221 matches for Cercle. Also at Club Brugge, Bailliu kept on showing his goal scoring capacities, totalling 40 goals in 86 matches. Bailliu won the

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

in 1968 after defeating Beerschot with penalties.

Personal life and death

Bailliu lived close to the Club Brugge stadium and was married to Christiane Serry; the couple had two daughters and two sons who also played for Cercle. Bailliu died in a nursing home in Ostend on 2 April 2023, at the age of 86.In memoriam: Gilbert Bailliu (86), grapjas en doelpuntenmachine van Cercle én Club Brugge in de jaren ’60
- Het Laatste Nieuws

Honours

Club Brugge *

: 1968

References

External links

Cerclemuseum.be
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailliu, Gilbert 1936 births 2023 deaths Footballers from Bruges Men's association football forwards Belgian men's footballers Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players Club Brugge KV players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players 20th-century Belgian sportsmen