Julien Cools (born 13 February 1947) is a Belgian former

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 won the Belgian Golden Shoe in 1977 while at

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 ...

. He was discovered as a junior at SK Retie Branddonk of Antwerp and made his name with Beringen FC. He was signed by FC Bruges in 1973 where his reputation for non-stop runner in the midfield made him an international regular. Cools helped FC Bruges to win the Belgian league titles in 1975–76, 76–77 and 77–78 plus the Belgian Cup in 1977. In Europe, Cools was a runner-up in the 1976 U.E.F.A.Cup Final and 1978 European Cup Final, Bruges losing both finals to Liverpool. He was rated by World Soccer Magazine as Bruges' best player in that 1978 Final. At 32 Cools left Bruges to join Beerschot where he enjoyed a new lease of life, becoming Captain of the national team. At the 1980 European Championship in Italy Cools played in all four of Belgium's games including the Final where they lost to West Germany. He was capped 35 times and scored two goals for the Belgium national team. In April 2008, he accepted an offer to become the Assistant coach of the

Brunei national football team The Brunei national football team (; recognised as Brunei Darussalam by FIFA), nicknamed ''Tebuan'' (The Wasps), is the National sports team, national team of Brunei, controlled by the Football Association of Brunei Darussalam. The team was fo ...

Honours

Player

Club Brugge *

Belgian First Division A 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– ...

: 1975–76, 1976–77, 1977–78 *

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 ...

: 1976–77 (winners), 1978-79 (runners-up) *

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 1975-1976 ( runners-up) *

European Champion Clubs' Cup The European Champion Clubs' Cup, also known as Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens, or simply the European Cup, is a trophy awarded annually by UEFA to the Association football, football club that wins the UEFA Champions League. The competiti ...

: 1977–78 ( runners-up)

International

Belgium *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

( runners-up) * Belgian Sports Merit Award: 1980

Individual

* Belgian Golden Shoe: 1977

References

1947 births Living people Belgian men's footballers Belgium men's international footballers Club Brugge KV players UEFA Euro 1980 players K.F.C. Dessel Sport players K. Beringen F.C. players K. Beerschot V.A.C. players K.V.C. Westerlo players People from Retie Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Antwerp Province 20th-century Belgian sportsmen {{Belgium-footy-midfielder-stub