Vissel Kobe FC of Japan star Thomas Vermaelen was one of the players who made the 26-man Belgium squad for the Euro 2020 tournament this summer. Thomas Vermaelen made the squad for the tournament earlier this summer as named by manager Roberto Martinez despite playing his club football outside the shores of Europe at the moment.
A lot of people expected Belgium to be one of the major contenders of the recently concluded UEFA Euros tournament, but their campaign ended in a rather shocking and unexpected fashion. Although they were knocked out by one of the favorites before the tournament and eventual winners, Italy, the strength they had in their squad made a lot of people think that they would have a better campaign than they did. Belgium fielded some of the best players in the world currently from the goalkeeping department right to their attack, including Thibaut Courtois, Kevin de Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, and others.
Former Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen has hit out at the critics that have been calling for the head of Belgium head coach Roberto Martinez. The Belgian Red Devils’ boss came under heavy criticism after his side were knocked out of the Euros 2020 following a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Italy – the eventual winners of the competition.
Inter Milan striker RomeluLukaku produced one of the best performances in the ongoing Euro 2020 tournament till date when he scored a brace to lead the Red Devils of Belgium to a 3-0 win over hosts Russia in a Group B clash played at St. Petersburg at the weekend.
It looks like Barcelona fans have finally found a reason to be excited for the future according to the latest reports making the rounds in the media. The Catalan giants have had to endure some lackluster spells in the last seasons and have fallen short in terms of being one of the most feared teams across Europe. This season particularly, they were at one of their worst states and could not compete for major titles as well.
There is currently both a huge demand and a massive pressure on Barcelona captain Lionel Messi to sign a new contract extension at the club but the situation is a complicated one and it is also one that he has to put under serious thoughts before arriving at a reasonable conclusion. The Barca superstar revealed last summer that he wanted to leave the club and was ready to seek a new adventure at another club in a different country, but he was not allowed to fulfill his desire.
Former Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen has hailed the impact made by the manager of the club, Ronald Koeman, saying that the former Southampton boss deserves a lot of credit for how he has turned things around at the Camp Nou. Koeman was appointed as Barcelona manager following the sacking of Quique Setien and was charged with the responsibility of taking the team to greater heights.
Former Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen has backed Gunners boss Mikel Arteta to come good at the club and should also be given the tune to show that he has what it takes to take the club to another level. Arteta was appointed as the club’s permanent manager after the sacking of Unai Emery and has since guided the club to different highs and lows, but Vermaelen believes the club are under the right management with the Spaniard.
An ex-defender of the Belgium national team, Marc Degryse has said that he would rather put faith in veteran central defender Thomas Vermaelen than in Leeds United defender Pascal Strujik.
Vissel Kobe centre back Thomas Vermaelen has enjoyed a relatively good football career till date. His professional football career has taken him to several countries from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom to Spainto Italy and now Japan. He became a prominent player when Arsenal signed him from Dutch champions Ajax Amsterdam in the summer of 2009. The Gunners paid an initial fee of €10m to sign Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax Amsterdam. The contract that took him to Arsenal had an extra €2m in add-ons. Thomas Vermaelen has played for one Premier League team in his career and that’s Arsenal. He was at the club for five years before the Gunners cashed in on him in a £15m deal to Spanish giants Barcelona. Thomas Vermaelen left the Gunners at a time when he had several injury problems.
