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

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and a former player who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He is the manager and technical director 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 Football in Belgium, Belgian football Belgian football league system, league system, one level below ...

Club career

Legear moved to

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 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, B ...

from their rivals

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

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 Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

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 (; ), commonly known as Akhmat Grozny, and formerly as Terek Grozny from 1958 to 2017, is a Russian professional football club based in Grozny that plays in the Russian Premier League. History The club was foun ...

of the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

, 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 () was 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. History The club was founded in 1961. In ...

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 Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen (), often called KV Mechelen (, KVM) or simply by their former French name Malinois /ˌmalɪˈnwɑː/, is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Mechelen in the Antwerp (pr ...

. He made his first league appearance on 28 February 2014 as a substitute for

Boubacar Dialiba Boubacar Diabang Dialiba (born 13 July 1988) is a former professional footballer who played as a left winger. Born in Senegal, he represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at under-21 level, before switching to his country of birth as a senior intern ...

during the second half in their 1–0 win over

Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...

. 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 landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

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 trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...

gas station located in

Tongeren Tongeren (; ; ; ) is a city and former 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 only Roman administrative capital wit ...

, 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 () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2009–10 *

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 ...

: 2007–08 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( ; ; ), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian Pro League champions (also received the Super Cup host) and the Belgian Cup winners. If both teams are the same, ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Standard Liège *

: 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 1. Lig 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 21st-century Belgian sportsmen