Axel Witsel is one of the most successful Belgian players of our time. But it’s not a secret for anyone that he did not immediately become a star - he had to go through an impressive path before he could reach the highest level. And if you do not know the story of this football player, then with the help of this article you can get to know her. You will find out in which clubs Axel Witsel played, what he achieved with them, what are his achievements in the national team and much more.
Carier start
Axel Witsel was born on January 12, 1989 in Belgium and for a long time was not considered a football player as a promising player. Only at a fairly adult age, at the age of fifteen, he began to show himself stably and well at the academy of the main club of his hometown of Liege (“Standard”), due to which he received an invitation to the youth team. He spent two years there before reaching adulthood in 2006 - then he was offered a professional contract, which he immediately signed. It was then that Axel Witsel became a professional footballer, but he was not one of those ingenious young athletes who are already bought at tens of millions at the age of 18. He had a lot to work on himself.
The game for the "Standard"
In his first season, Axel did not get enough playing practice, as he was still too young, but he was given a lot of chances to show himself. And he naturally took advantage of them. Axel Witsel is a football player who always fights to the last. For a long time he was considered one of the best central midfielders in the world, but he could not have achieved this if he had not given all his best in Standard. He spent five seasons there, during which he played 183 matches and scored 42 goals. The third season was the most successful, because largely thanks to the efforts of the rising genius, the club reached the quarterfinals of the Europa League. However, in the Belgian Championship there was a failure - after winning the previous year, “Standard” took only sixth place. In his last season for this club, Witsel managed to win the Belgian Cup, so he moved to Benfica in Lisbon in 2011, who paid nine million euros for him.
Going to Benfica
It was in Benfica, where Axel Witsel, whose photographs began to appear everywhere in Belgian and foreign football magazines, got at the age of 22, he began to reveal himself like a real football genius. Largely thanks to him, the Portuguese club was able to get to the quarter finals of the Champions League, as well as take second place in the Portuguese Championship. However, it turned out that for Witsel this club was only a stepping stone to the great future, because the St. Petersburg Zenit entered the game, which, thanks to the sponsorship of Gazprom, had much more money than Benfica. Therefore, the Russian club was able to offer the Portuguese player as much as forty million euros, which is more than four times more than what Benfica paid a year earlier to Standard. Zenit attracted Witsel himself with an impressive salary, so in 2012 Axel transferred to a new club.
The leader of the “Zenith”
What could Axel Witsel achieve in the new club? Zenit is one of the strongest Russian football clubs, that's why it was not only Axel who turned out to be the strongest legionnaire - Petersburgers conducted another multi-million transfer that summer, signing a contract with Brazilian striker Hulk. Witsel was lucky - his compatriot Nicholas Lombaerts was already playing at Zenit , and there were also two Portuguese - Bruno Alves and Liusz Netu. Given that Axel spent the last year in Portugal, this helped him to settle in the club and quickly become one of the midfield leaders.
Over four seasons, Axel spent 156 matches with the Russian team, scoring 26 goals. The most successful season can be considered 14/15, when Zenit finally managed to win the Russian Championship after two years with silver medals, and also reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League, where the club lost to the future winner of the tournament, the Spanish Sevilla. In early August of this year, rumors appeared that Witsel Axel was leaving Zenit - the Turin Juventus repeatedly contacted the Russian club with a proposal. But Axel decided that he would be better off where he had already played four years, so he did not go to Italy and will continue to play for Zenit.
Team appearances
Axel Witsel is one of the key players in the Belgian national team - only Jan Vertongen has more appearances for the team than he has. Witsel played 74 matches for the national team, debuting in its composition back in 2008 in a friendly match against the Italian national team.
Unfortunately, the times of the strong national team of Belgium passed, and then the team could not get into any major tournament - in 2008, 2010 and 2012, the Belgians remained outside the framework of the World and European Championships. And only in 2014, when a new generation of talented football players arrived, did the Belgian national team make it to the World Cup, where they managed to go quite far down to the quarter-finals. Witsel played in two of the group’s three matches, as well as in both playoff rivals, including in the quarterfinal match, where the Belgians lost to the future finalists - the Argentines.
In March 2016, Axel first brought his team to the field in a friendly match against the Portuguese national team with a captain's armband in his hand. As for the European Championship in 2016, here the Belgians only managed to repeat their achievement of 2014 - they reached the quarter finals, where they lost to the dark horse, the Wales team. This time Witsel played all matches “from bell to bell”, scoring in the group stage of the national team of Ireland.
Achievements
During his long career, Axel Witsel twice became the champion of Belgium with Standard and won the Belgian Cup once with the same club. With “Benfica” in one year he managed to win only the League Cup, but with “Zenith” he managed to win the Russian Championship once and once the Russian Cup.