Rik De Mil (born 15 September 1981) 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 ...

manager and former player. As a player, he was a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Coaching career

Club Brugge

In 2015, De Mil received an offer from

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 ...

to become a youth coach, following the departure of

Sven Vermant Sven Vermant (born 4 April 1973) is a Belgian former professional association football, football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is best known for his spells at Club Brugge KV, Club Brugge and FC Schalke 04. Club career ...

. He coached

Club NXT Club NXT is the youth academy of Belgian football club Club Brugge. The most senior team of Club NXT acts as Club Brugge's reserve team, and competes in the Challenger Pro League, the second flight of Belgian football. History On 1 July 2020 ...

, the reserve team of Club Brugge, during the side's 2020–21 season in the

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League, previously known as 1B Pro League is the second-highest division in the Football in Belgium, Belgian football Belgian football league system, league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was created by the ...

. On 18 February 2021, he replaced

Philippe Clement Philippe Clement (born 22 March 1974) is a Belgian professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Scottish Premiership club Rangers. He began his professional career at Belgian clubs Beerschot and Genk be ...

as head coach of Club Brugge in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

round of 32 match against

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

which ended in a 1–1 draw, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In June 2022, he was replaced as Club NXT coach by

Nicky Hayen Nicky Hayen (born 16 August 1980) is a Belgian professional football manager and former player who is currently the head coach of Belgian Pro League club Club Brugge. Career From 1999 on, Hayen played nine seasons at the highest level of Belgian ...

. Ahead of the 2022–23 season, Club Brugge announced that De Mil would be promoted to the first team, where he became assistant to

Carl Hoefkens Carl Hoefkens (born 6 October 1978) is a Belgian football manager and former professional footballer who played as a defender. He is currently the manager of Eredivisie club NAC Breda. Club career Early career Born in Lier, Hoefkens started hi ...

. After the latter's dismissal in December 2022, De Mil also served under

Scott Parker Scott Matthew Parker (born 13 October 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who currently manages Premier League club Burnley. Parker began his career at Charlton Athletic, and was loaned to Norwich City, before ...

. In March 2023, he obtained his UEFA Pro License trainer's diploma.

Westerlo

On 12 December 2023, De Mil signed a contract with

Westerlo Westerlo () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises seven towns: * Westerlo centrum * * Tongerlo * Heultje * Voortkapel * Oosterwijk * In 2021, Westerlo had a total population of 25,288. Th ...

, where he succeeded Jonas De Roeck as head coach. He achieved better results, which saved the club from relegation, but was still dismissed on 19 March 2024, following the controversial 1–1 draw in the last match of the regular competition against

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

Charleroi

On 22 March 2024,

Sporting Charleroi Royal Charleroi Sporting Club, often simply known as Charleroi or Sporting Charleroi, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the Belgian Pro League. Their curr ...

announced the signing of a 2-year contract with De Mil, replacing Felice Mazzu. De Mil helped Charleroi win all their games in the

relegation play-off Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

series to stay up.

References

External links

Rik De Mil
at Club Brugge 1981 births Living people People from Eeklo Belgian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Belgian football managers Club Brugge KV non-playing staff Club NXT Club Brugge KV managers K.V.C. Westerlo managers Royal Charleroi S.C. managers Footballers from East Flanders 21st-century Belgian sportsmen {{Belgium-footy-goalkeeper-stub