Jonathan Fernand Jean Legear (born 13 April 1987) is a Belgian 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

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for RCS Verlaine in the fourth-tier

Belgian Division 2 The Belgian Division 2, commonly referred to as simply Tweede Afdeling (in Dutch) or Division 2 (in French) is the fourth-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian National Division 1. It was created by th ...

Club career

Legear moved to

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 ...

from their rivals

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the mo ...

in 2003. He scored his first goal in the Jupiler League against Standard Liège in the 2004–05 season. He was initially registered to the football club of J.S Thier (Jeunesse sportive du Thier-à-Liège), a small club near Liège at the age of eight, a club where he showed a promising future in Belgian football. From there he was scouted by the Standard Liège Academy who recruited him in 1998. Despite the tacit agreement between the top three clubs in Belgium, which prevents transfers between those clubs academies, Legear moved from Standard to Anderlecht in 2003. In the 2007–08 season, Legear made the breakthrough into the Anderlecht starting XI and featured regularly in the team's Jupiler League and European competition matches. This was a result of his increasing level of performances, as well as Anderlecht's lack of attacking options on the right wing. He was touted as the next

Christian Wilhelmsson Christian Ulf "Chippen" Wilhelmsson (; born 8 December 1979) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a winger. Beginning his career with Mjällby AIF in 1997, he went on to represent clubs in Norway, Belgium, France, Italy, Sp ...

, with similar hair color and speed on the flank. On 26 August 2011, Legear joined

Terek Grozny Republican Football Club Akhmat ( ce, футболан клуб Ахмат Соьлжа-ГӀала; russian: Республиканский футбольный клуб Ахмат Грозный), commonly known as Akhmat Grozny, is a Russian ...

of the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 200 ...

, signing a three-year contract for a fee of €1.8 million. He made his league debut on 12 September 2011 against Kuban Krasnodar, a match which Terek lost 1–2. Legear marked his first goal in the 2012–13 season, scoring the opener against

Mordovia Saransk FC Mordovia Saransk (russian: ФК Мордовия Саранск) is a Russian association football club from Saransk, Republic of Mordovia. In its current state it was formed in 2005, through the merge of Biokhimik-Mordovia and Lisma-Mordovia ...

on 10 November 2012 to give his side a 2–1 victory. On 17 January 2014, his contract was terminated by mutual consent after disagreements between him and the club. Legear returned to Belgium on 31 January 2014, penning a six-month deal with KV Mechelen. He made his first league appearance on 28 February 2014 as a substitute for

Boubacar Dialiba Boubacar Diabang Dialiba (born July 13, 1988) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Turkish club Ankara Keçiörengücü. He also played for the Bosnia and Herzegovina U21 national team and the full internationa ...

during the second half in their 1–0 win over

Lokeren Lokeren () is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second most important city after Sint-Niklaas. The city, located on the river D ...

. He joined Blackpool on 4 November 2014, in a one-year deal. His contract was terminated, by mutual consent, on 28 January 2015.

International career

Legear made his debut for the Belgium national team on 8 October 2010 in a 2–0 European Championship qualifier win against

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

Personal life

On 7 October 2012, Legear was involved in a car accident in which he crashed his car, while being drunk, inside an

Esso Esso () is a trade name, trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Exxon, Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Ess ...

gas station located in

Tongeren Tongeren (; french: Tongres ; german: Tongern ; li, Tóngere ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the on ...

, having mistaken the accelerator pedal for the brake. Damage costs were revealed to be between €250,000 and €300,000 by an Esso spokesman, with Legear also receiving a two-week driving suspension. He had earlier been involved in a similar incident in 2009, where he was sentenced to 50 hours of community service for having driven his car into a house after a night out.

Honours

Anderlecht *

Belgian First Division 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 ...

: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2009–10 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 2007–08 Belgian Cup, 2007–08 *

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 ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Standard Liège *

: 2015–16 Belgian Cup, 2015–16

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Legear, Jonathan 1987 births Living people Footballers from Liège Belgian men's footballers Belgian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football wingers Belgium men's youth international footballers Belgium men's under-21 international footballers Belgium men's international footballers Belgian Pro League players Russian Premier League players TFF First League players Belgian Third Division players R.S.C. Anderlecht players FC Akhmat Grozny players K.V. Mechelen players Blackpool F.C. players Standard Liège players Sint-Truidense V.V. players Adana Demirspor footballers URSL Visé players Belgian expatriate sportspeople in England Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Russia