Legends of KV Mechelen’s 120 years: Michel Preud’homme | OneFootball

This December, KV Mechelen are celebrating their 120th anniversary. Alongside an overview of the clubs fascinating history, we are profiling some of the legends of the clubs history. One of these is the well known Belgian goalkeeper Michel Preud’homme.

Preud’homme was born in 1959 in Ougrée, an area just outside of Liege in Seraing. It was unsprusingly then that the goalkeeper would beign his career with the cities biggest club, Standard Liege. After making coming through the youth set up with Standard and making his debut in 1977, Preud’homme would go on to help Standard win the cup in 1980/81 and the league in 1981/82. As a result of winning the cup, Standard qualified for the Cup Winners Cup the following season. While they successful won the Belgian title, they narrowly missed out on the European trophy, losing in the final to Barcelona. Preud’homme would have to wait a few more years to get his hands on the trophy.

After a few successful years with Standard, Preud’homme joined Mechelen in 1986. Almost immediately, the side enjoyed the golden period of their history. With Preud’homme in goal, the side won their first Belgian cup in 1986/87 before going to the final of the 1987/88 Cup Winners Cup. Preud’homme kept a clean sheet as Mechelen beat Ajax 1-0 in Strasbourg. He then got to lift the league title again as Mechelen won their first title since the late 1940s at the end of the 1988/89 season.

At the end of his final season with Mechelen, Preud’homme went to the 1994 World Cup with Belgium. While they did not get further than the Round of 16 after losing out to Germany, Preud’homme had impressed enough to win the Yashin Award for Goalkeeper of the Tournament. He returned from the tournament in the USA to join up with his newest and final club Benfica. He left Mechelen after making 263 appearances. Preud’homme won the Portuguese cup with Benfica before retiring at the age of 40 in 1999.

During his career he was twice awarded the Golden Shoe for best Belgian player (1987 and 1989), no mean feat for a goalkeeper. He was also Belgian Goalkeeper of the year fours years in a row between 1988 and 1991. Recently, Preud’homme was inducted into the newly inaugurated Belgian Pro League hall of fame.

Following his retirement, the goalkeeper went into management relatively quickly. After a brief spell as head coach of Standard Liege in the early 2000s, he moved into a technical role before returning to the dugout in 2006. He then led Standard to the title during the 2007/2008 season. He has had spells at Gent, Twente, Al-Shabab and Club Brugge. At both Club and Gent he won the Belgian Cup, while he also grabbed another league title as head coach of Club.

One job that Preud’homme has been constantly linked with is the Belgian national team head coach. In 2016 he rejected the idea of taking over. Since leaving Standard in 2020 he has not had another coaching job.

GBeNeFN | Ben Jackson