Nicolas Robert Christian Lombaerts (born 20 March 1985) 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Career

Club

Brugge

Lombaerts joined

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 ...

at young age where he went through all youth ranks. He claimed various league titles at young age as he was part of a strong generation at Brugge, with players such as Jason Vandelannoite, Glenn Verbauwhede and

Thomas Matton Thomas Matton (born 24 October 1985) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Career Matton got his youth training mainly at Club Brugge. He was a member of the generation of players such as Jason Van ...

Gent

As his ambition was to play in the starting lineup of a first division team as soon as possible and Club Brugge was not able to guarantee this, he moved to

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent ( Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, ...

where he soon was able to play almost every match in the

2005–06 Belgian First Division The 2005–06 season of the Belgian Jupiler League began on August 5, 2005 and ended on May 5, 2006. Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capita ...

and also got his first appearance for the

Belgium national football team The Belgium national football team has represented Belgium in men's international Association football, football since Évence Coppée Trophy, their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in E ...

. Apart from football, he was at that point still studying

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

Ghent University Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

. Several times he was selected for the Belgian national youth teams such as the

Belgium national under-21 football team The Belgium national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Belgium and is controlled by the Belgian Football Association. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years. Their ...

. Highlights were the

2004 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship The 2004 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was held in Switzerland from 13 to 24 July 2004. Players born after 1 January 1985 can participate in this competition. The tournament was won by Spain, who beat Turkey in the final. It also served as t ...

and the

2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2007 were held from 10 to 23 June 2007. It was the 16th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. Summary For the first time, a host nation was chosen ahead of the competition – the Netherlands, w ...

Zenit

In July 2007, Lombaerts chose a lucrative transfer to the

FC Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (, ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, according to some Russian sources), the club p ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. At that point he quit his studies and chose for a football career. Zenit eventually won its first Russian league title with the

2007 Russian Premier League The 2007 Russian Premier League was the 16th season of the Russian Football Championship, and the sixth under the current Russian Premier League name. The league was sponsored by insurance company Rosgosstrakh. The season started on 10 March 200 ...

. At the beginning of 2008, Lombaerts was sidelined for over half a year as the result of a

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury. He received knee injury in UEFA Cup game against Villarreal CF during the attack that led to the only away goal against the Spanish team. His actions in this game (goal assist by header) later on have been regarded by Zenit fans as one of the most important steps in the subsequent victory in UEFA Cup. In the following games without him, his team won the

2007–08 UEFA Cup The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was the 37th edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, UEFA's former second-tier club association football, football tournament. The 2008 UEFA Cup Final, final was played at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, E ...

and he also missed the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

where Belgium finished fourth. Lombaerts finally made his return to Zenit on 19 July 2009, coming on in the 71st minute for Aleksei Ionov against Terek Grozny. Even though Zenit were defeated 3-2, Lombaerts described the happiness of taking the pitch again as similar to "a small child's joy when walking into a shop full of sweets." He then quickly became a fixture in defense for caretaker Anatoliy Davydov, helping Zenit win six consecutive matches to get back into the title hunt. On 29 November 2009, Lombaerts scored the game-winning goal against rival Spartak Moscow to put Zenit into the

2010-11 UEFA Champions League 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

as third-place team in Russia. On 5 July 2010, Lombaerts signed a four-year contract to remain with Zenit.

Oostende

On 24 March 2017, it was announced that after 10 seasons with Zenit, Lombaerts will return to Belgium for 2017–18 season, signing with

K.V. Oostende Koninklijke Voetbalclub Oostende, also called KV Oostende () or KVO, was a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Ostend, West Flanders. The team was founded in 1904 as ''VG Oostende'' and had Football in Belgium#Matr ...

. He played his last, 289th official game for Zenit on 17 May 2017 in a game against

FC Krasnodar FC Krasnodar is a Russian professional football club based in Krasnodar that plays in the Russian Premier League. They are the league's reigning champions. The club was founded in 2008. In 2009, the club was promoted to the Russian First Divis ...

and was honoured by the club. On 30 July 2019 it was announced, that the club wanted to terminate his contract in exchange for a severance payment of 300,000 euros and was sent to the B-team. The club was in financial problems after owner Marc Coucke left the club, why they wanted to part ways with Lombaerts and his heavy wages.

International

He has made his debut in full internationals in May 2006 in a friendly against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, and played 3 matches in Euro 2008 qualifying. On 26 May 2014, in a pre-World Cup match against

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, Lombaerts came on as a substitute in the 77th minute for

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 ...

. As Belgium had already made the 6 permitted substitutions, the match was therefore declared invalid on 4 June.

Coaching career

On 28 May 2021 it was confirmed, that Lombaerts would become the assistant manager of

Hein Vanhaezebrouck Hein Vanhaezebrouck (; born 16 February 1964) is a Belgian football manager. Most recently he was head coach of Belgian Pro League club K.A.A. Gent. He has a reputation of preferring a defensive style of play. Early life Vanhaezebrouck was born ...

at his former club

K.A.A. Gent Koninklijke Atletiek Associatie Gent (; English: ''Royal Athletic Association Ghent''), often simply known as Gent or by their nickname ' (), is a Belgian professional sports club, based in the city of Ghent, East Flanders. Their football tea ...

from the start of the 2021-22 season.AA Gent verrast: Nicolas Lombaerts keert terug bij Buffalo’s als assistent van Hein Vanhaezebrouck
hln.be, 28 May 2021

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Belgium's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lombaerts goal''.

Career honours

Zenit St. Petersburg *

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 ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

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 ...

, 2011-12, 2014–15 * Russian Cup:

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Rambler Russian ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

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 ...

: 2007-08 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

Notes

External links

Profile at the official FC Zenit St. Petersburg website
*
Belgium Stats
at Belgian FA {{DEFAULTSORT:Lombaerts, Nicolas 1985 births Living people Footballers from Bruges Men's association football defenders Belgian men's footballers Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgium men's youth international footballers Belgium men's under-21 international footballers Belgium men's international footballers KAA Gent players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players UEFA Europa League–winning players K.V. Oostende players Russian Premier League players Belgian Pro League players 2014 FIFA World Cup players Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia 21st-century Belgian sportsmen