Nicolas Lombaerts

Nicolas Lombaerts

Personal information
Date of birth	20 March 1985 (1985-03-20) (age 26)
Place of birth	Brugge, Belgium
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Centre back Left back
Club information
Current club	Zenit Saint Petersburg
Number	6
Youth career
	Club Brugge
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2004–2007	Gent	76	(1)
2007–	Zenit Saint Petersburg	84	(8)
National team‡
2005–2006	Belgium U-21	0	(0)
2006–	Belgium	18	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 04:39, 19 November 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 19:54, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Nicolas Lombaerts (born 20 March 1985 in Brugge) is a Belgian left-footed football defender who plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg^[1] and the Belgium national team. He is tall, a leader on the pitch and a good header, both strong in defence as in constructive play.

Club career

Brugge

Lombaerts joined Club Brugge at young age where he went through all youth ranks. He claimed various league titles at young age as he was part of a strong generation at Brugge, with players such as Jason Vandelannoite, Glenn Verbauwhede and Thomas Matton. Several times he was selected for the Belgian national youth teams such as the Belgium national under-21 football team. Highlights were the 2004 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship and the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

Gent

As his ambition was to play in the starting lineup of a first division team as soon as possible and Club Brugge was not able to guarantee this, he moved to Gent where he soon was able to play almost every match in the 2005–06 Belgian First Division and also got his first appearance for the Belgium national football team. Apart from football, he was at that point still studying law at Ghent University.

Zenit

In July 2007, he chose a lucrative transfer to the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg in Russia. At that point he quit his studies and chose for a football career. Zenit eventually won its first Russian league title with the 2007 Russian Premier League. At the beginning of 2008, Lombaerts was sidelined for over half a year as the result of a knee injury. In the meantime without him, his team won the 2007–08 UEFA Cup and he also missed the 2008 Summer Olympics where Belgium became fourth.

Lombaerts finally made his return to Zenit on 19 July 2009, coming on in the 71st minute for Aleksei Ionov against Terek Grozny. Even though Zenit were defeated 3-2, Lombaerts described the happiness of taking the pitch again as similar to "a small child's joy when walking into a shop full of sweets."^[2] He then quickly became a fixture in defense for caretaker Anatoliy Davydov, helping Zenit win six consecutive matches to get back into the title hunt. On 29 November 2009, Lombaerts scored the game-winning goal against rival Spartak Moscow to put Zenit into the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League as third-place team in Russia.^[3]

On 5 July 2010, Lombaerts signed a four-year contract to remain with Zenit.^[4]

International career

He has made his debut in full internationals in May 2006 in a friendly against Saudi Arabia,^[5] and played 3 matches in Euro 2008 qualifying.^[6]

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	2010-10-12	King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium	Austria	4 – 3	4–4	UEFA Euro 2012 Qualification
2	2011-09-06	King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium	United States	1 – 0	1–0	Friendly

Career honours

Club

Zenit St. Petersburg

• Russian Premier League (2): 2007, 2010
• Russian Cup (1): 2010
• Russian Super Cup (2): 2008, 2011
• UEFA Cup (1): 2007-08
• UEFA Super Cup (1): 2008

Notes

1. ^ Lombaerts to add Zest to Zenit uefa.com
2. ^ "Николас Ломбертс: «Когда вышел на поле в Грозном, испытал этакую детскую радость»" (in Russian). sport-express.ru. http://www.sports.ru/football/20142499.html. 
3. ^ "Зенит 2-1 Спартак статистика" (in Russian). sports.ru. http://www.sports.ru/stat/football/match/stat/19096.html. 
4. ^ "Ломбертс подписал новый контракт с «Зенитом»" (in Russian). sports.ru. 2010-07-05. http://www.sports.ru/football/71628209.html. 
5. ^ Lombaerts deal uefa.com
6. ^ Stats at transfermarkt.de

External links

• Profile at the official FC Zenit St. Petersburg website
• (Russian) Profile at the official Russian Premier League website

Persondata
Name	Lombaerts, Nicolas
Alternative names
Short description	footballer
Date of birth	20 March 1985
Place of birth	Brugge, Belgium
Date of death
Place of death