Tom De Sutter (born 3 July 1985) is a Belgian retired

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 played as a

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Early career

De Sutter started his football activities at his local team KVV Balegem, where he was discovered by third division side

Standaard Wetteren Standaard Wetteren was a football in Belgium, Belgian association football club team from Wetteren. Its matricule (5479) still exists as it was sold to investors who created a new team, R.W.D. Molenbeek (2015), RWD Molenbeek The Matricule 47. ...

. From there, he moved to

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 ...

where he couldn't manage to get a place in the first team, so he moved back to a team in the third division, KM Torhout 1992 this time. De Sutter only stayed there for one top-scoring season, as he was discovered by

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city rivals,

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 ...

, after a friendly match in which De Sutter scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

. At Cercle, he managed a breakthrough almost immediately, scoring in his first official match against Excelsior Mouscron. On 27 November 2007, De Sutter scored 4 goals in 21 minutes in a

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 ...

game, playing away against KV Mechelen. In the next round, his goal decided the derby against Cercles main rival

, one of De Sutter's former youth teams. The stronger and stronger performances by De Sutter didn't go unnoticed during the 2007–08 mid season break. De Sutter raised the interest from RSC

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

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

, and he was voted ''Best Player of the First Half of the Season'' by Belgian football fans and media. He also made an unexpected third place in the Golden Shoe election of 2007. On 1 February, Cercle Brugge announced that after the

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

match at home against Standard Liège, in which De Sutter scored the final 4–1 goal, Cercle received some bids for De Sutter. The highest bid was rumoured to be one of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

7.5 million from

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

, although

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

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 ...

denied this. Cercle Brugge spokesman Pol Van Den Driessche confirmed in

één VRT 1 is a public Dutch-language TV station in Belgium, owned by the VRT, which also owns Ketnet, VRT Canvas and several radio stations. Although the channel is commercial-free, short sponsorship messages are broadcast in between some programm ...

program ''De Zevende Dag'' that it was not a bid by Zenit, but that it was an

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

an team and that it was a bid between €5 and 10 million. However, De Sutter decided to stay with Cercle. At the end of January 2008, national

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Rene Vandereycken included De Sutter in his team for

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 ...

's unofficial friendly match against

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 ...

. One day before the match, he tore one of his

knee ligaments 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 ...

, forcing him to six months of absence. He was back for the beginning of season 2008–2009 still playing in Cercle.

Bursaspor

On 13 August 2015, De Sutter signed a three-year contract with Turkish club

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği, commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkey, Turkish professional sports club based in the city of Bursa. Founded in 1963, the club is best known for its football team, which has a rich history in Football in Turkey, Turk ...

Knokke

On 4 July 2019, he joined

Knokke Knokke () is a town in the municipality of Knokke-Heist, which is located in the province of West Flanders in Flanders, Belgium. The town itself has 15,708 inhabitants (2007), while the municipality of Knokke-Heist has 33,818 inhabitants (2009). ...

on a 2-year contract. However, he decided to retire at the end of the season.Tom De Sutter stopt: "Zijn laatste transfer is er eentje naar huis"
sporza.be, 2 April 2020

International career

De Sutters performances were also noticed by

Jean-François De Sart Jean-François de Sart (born 18 December 1961 at Waremme) is a former Belgian football player. He is the former coach of the Belgium national under-21 football team and has last worked as Director of football for Standard Liège. While at R.F.C ...

, the Belgian national under-21 coach, selecting him for the team after his transfer from Cercle. He was part of the

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of Military organization, military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and United States, U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a fireteam, ...

that qualified for 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 ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

Honours

;R.S.C. 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– ...

: 2009–10, 2011–12,

2012–13 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 ...

Belgian Supercup 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, t ...

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 ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

;Club Brugge *

(1): 2014–15

References

Tom de Sutter Lokeren ile anlaştı!
fanatik.com.tr, 24 June 2016

External links

Cerclemuseum.be
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Sutter, Tom 1985 births Living people Belgian men's footballers Belgium men's international footballers Belgium men's under-21 international footballers Belgian expatriate men's footballers Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Club Brugge KV players Bursaspor footballers K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players K.V. Oostende players Belgian Pro League players Süper Lig players Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Men's association football forwards Footballers from Ghent 21st-century Belgian sportsmen