Maarten Martens (born 2 July 1984) 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 ...

, either as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

or winger. He is the current head coach of the Dutch club

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan#The Zaan district, Zaan district. ...

. Martens was known for his flair,

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. As ...

and goalscoring ability as well as his precise passing and creativity. He previously played for Belgian clubs

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 ...

and

Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. They compete in the Belgian Pro League, the top flight of Belgian football. Their matricule number is 12. The club plays home games at the 29 ...

, Dutch clubs

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Waalwijk. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie i ...

and AZ, as well as Greek club

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

. At international level, he has represented the Belgium national team.

Early career

Born in

Eeklo Eeklo () is a Belgium, Belgian Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises only the city of Eeklo proper. The name ''Eeklo'' comes from the cont ...

, Maarten Martens took his first steps in football in Klauwaerts Bassevelde. At the age of eight young Martens joined the youth team of

. There, over the years he was a teammate of, among others, Urko Pardo, Mark De Man and Xavier Chen. In 2003 Roda showed interest in the young midfielder, but he decided to stay in the team of his heart. In the 2003–04 season, Martens joined the first team, but he did not have many chances to prove himself. Only once under the coach Hugo Broos did he play at the highest level.

Club career

RKC Waalwijk

Martens' improvement made

loan him to another club. Over a year

wanted the 20-year-old midfielder so it signed on a year loan. Martens, both as a midfield and winger, improves tremendously in his first season. In the summer of 2005 the club bought him from Anderlecht for a three-year contract. Football journalist Johan Derksen said at that time in one of its VI -columns that Martens is a fantastic footballer and will enjoy playing for Waalwijk.

AZ

In the summer of 2006, Martens moved like his compatriot Mousa Dembélé from AZ. It was

Louis van Gaal Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (; born 8 August 1951) is a Dutch former association football, football player and former manager who currently serves as an advisor for AFC Ajax, Ajax. At club level, he served as manager of AFC Ajax, Aj ...

who noticed the young talents. Martens improved even further under Van Gaal instructions. With AZ he had a key role to the struggle for the league title. On 28 October 2007, Martens had his first injury. This severe injury kept him outside for a long time. Only in the 2008/09 season did Martens go back into the first team. He played almost every match in that season and attracted the attention of the Italian giants

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. But the Belgian midfielder remained in the Netherlands and won the championship with AZ. A year later, Martens made his first appearance in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. In April 2011, Martens was the victim of a charge from his compatriot and former teammate Gill Swerts. On his return in August 2011, Martens immediately scored an important goal in the match against PSV. Two weeks later, Martens was injured again. Only in December 2011, he succeeded to come back in the first team. In August 2012, after the departure of

Niklas Moisander Niklas Kristian Moisander (born 29 September 1985) is a Finnish former professional association football, footballer who played as a centre-back. Moisander was born in Turku, where he played for the local Turun Palloseura, TPS youth team before ...

and Rasmus Elm, Martens became the captain of the club. Martens played the first few games of the season, but after a serious knee injury missed the rest of the season.

PAOK

On 15 January 2014, Martens signed a contract with

Superleague Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repl ...

team

until 30 June 2016. After a year with PAOK, Maartens signed on loan with Belgian club

for the rest of the 2014-15 season, but after the relegation of the club, he returned to PAOK. On 5 August 2015, Martens reached an agreement with PAOK to terminate his contract with the club.

International career

While Martens played for RKC, he earned the interest of Jean-François De Sart. He became the captain of the Belgium U21 team. Over the years, the young midfielder was part of a strong generation of players like

Vincent Kompany Vincent Jean Mpoy Kompany (born 10 April 1986) is a Belgian professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former Association football, player who played as a centre-back. He is currently the head coach of ...

Marouane Fellaini Marouane Fellaini-Bakkioui (born 22 November 1987) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in Etterbeek to Moroccan parents, Fellaini played youth football for Anderlecht, R.A.E.C. Mons, Royal Francs Borai ...

Jan Vertonghen Jan Bert Lieve Vertonghen (; born 24 April 1987) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a defender. Mainly a centre-back, he also played as a left-back. Vertonghen began his senior career at Dutch club Ajax in 2006, and total ...

Thomas Vermaelen Thomas Vermaelen (; born 14 November 1985) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a defender. Being left-footed, he usually played as a left-sided centre-back and could play at left-back as well. His key attributes included a ...

and Mousa Dembélé. He was selected for the U-21 European Championships in 2007. The young Belgians reached the semi-finals and qualified for the Olympic Games in 2008. At the Olympics, Belgium promoted from Group C along with Brazil through to the quarterfinals. Belgium surprisingly won Italy to the quarterfinals by 3–2. In the semi-final against Nigeria, Belgium lost 4–1. In the game for the bronze medal Brazil defeated the young Red Devils 3–0. The good performance of the young Devils stood in contrast to the poor results of the first team. Many players, among Martens, from this team after the Olympic Games were promoted to the first team, but Martens throughout the years did not manage to receive a permanent call. But he is, to date, the player with the most appearances in the Belgium U21 team. Martens made his debut on 7 February 2007 with

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. It was coach Rene Vandereycken who selected him for the first time. After his debut, Martens was barely called for the national team following several injuries. In 2009,

Frank Vercauteren François Vercauteren (born 28 October 1956), nicknamed "The Little Prince", is a Belgian former footballer who played as a left winger. He is currently the sports director of the Royal Belgian Football Association. Club career Vercauteren ma ...

, called him for the Kirin Cup in Japan. In 2010, under

Dick Advocaat Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat (; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch former association football, football player and coach. He is currently the manager of the Curaçao national football team. Advocaat was successful as a football player and as a ...

, he appeared in his last international match, replacing

Wesley Sonck Wesley Sonck (born 9 August 1978) is a Belgian professional association football, football manager and former player who manages the Belgium national under-19 football team, Belgium U19 national team. He played as a striker (association football ...

Managerial career

In May 2021, Martens started his first job as head coach in Alkmaar, with

Jong AZ Jong AZ is a Dutch association football team, based in Wijdewormer in the Zaanstreek. It is the reserve team of AZ, based in Alkmaar, and plays in the Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Net ...

, after he already worked in the youth of Club Brugge as an assistant coach. At the end of the 2022–23 season, he was moved from Jong AZ to the main AZ squad as an assistant coach. In January 2024, Martens became the head coach of

, his first senior coaching job, taking over following the dismissal of Pascal Jensen. Martens was initially given the role until the end of the season, but after guiding AZ to a fourth place finish in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

he signed a two year contract extension. On 9 May 2025, it was announced that Martens, along with his entire technical staff, had signed a new three year contract with AZ.

Career statistics

Club

Managerial statistics

Honours

AZ *

: 2008–09 *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

: 2012–13 *

Johan Cruijff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national football ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martens, Maarten 1984 births Living people People from Eeklo Footballers from East Flanders Belgian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders R.S.C. Anderlecht players RKC Waalwijk players AZ Alkmaar players PAOK FC players Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players Belgian Pro League players Eredivisie players Super League Greece players Belgium men's youth international footballers Belgium men's under-21 international footballers Olympic footballers for Belgium Belgium men's international footballers Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Belgian football managers Eerste Divisie managers Belgian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands 21st-century Belgian sportsmen