- Thomas Buffel
Football player infobox
playername = Thomas Buffel
fullname = Thomas Buffel
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1981|2|19
cityofbirth =Brugge
countryofbirth =Belgium
height = height|m=1.75
currentclub =Cercle Brugge
clubnumber =
position = Attacking midfielder
contractend =1 July 2010
years = 2000–2002 2002–2005 2005–2008 2008–
clubs = Excelsior Feyenoord RangersCercle Brugge
caps(goals) = 63 (27) 90 (34) 62 (11) 5 (1)
nationalyears = 2002–2006, 2008–
nationalteam = Belgium
nationalcaps(goals) = 31 0(7)
pcupdate = May 31, 2008
ntupdate = September 14, 2008Thomas Buffel (born
February 19 1981 inBrugge ,Belgium ) is a Belgian footballer who plays for Jupiler League sideCercle Brugge , he is an attacking midfielder and can play as astriker . He has played at international level for the Belgian football team.Club career
Early career
Buffel began his career with Belgian sides Ruddervoorde and Cercle Brugge before making a move to The
Netherlands .Buffel played for the Dutch team
Feyenoord in the 1999-2000 season, before moving to their feeder teamExcelsior Rotterdam from 2000 to 2002. He returned to Feyenoord for the 2002-2003 Dutch season. He reportedly fell out with then-managerRuud Gullit in the next season "after refusing to sign a new contract".cite news|url=http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/sport/6016018.html|publisher=Glasgow Evening Times|title=Rangers just fan-tastic|date=January 6, 2005]Rangers
Buffel moved to the Scottish side Rangers in January 2005 in a £2.3 million, four-and-a-half year deal.cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rangers/4132791.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Rangers secure Buffel signature|date=5 January, 2005] He made his debut in the
Scottish Cup coming on as a substitute againstOld Firm rivals Celtic in what was to be a 2-1 defeat.cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/4154599.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Celtic 2-1 Rangers|date=9 January, 2005] However the season did not end badly for him as he was to play a key role in the 2005 Scottish League Cup Final, where Rangers defeated Motherwell 5-1.cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/4359199.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Rangers 5-1 Motherwell|date=20 March 2005] He also featured in the Rangers team for the latter part of the season where he would help them to their 51st league title. Making it a double for his first season with the club, he also scored five goals is 18 appearances.Buffel featured in the Champions League and helped Rangers reach the last 16 of the tournament, where they lost to Villarreal 3-3 on aggregate and were knocked out on away goals rule. He scored seven goals in 38 appearances during the 2005-2006 season mostly playing in the
midfield .In the during the 2007 January
transfer window , German clubHannover 96 expressed an interest in him, with Rangers managerWalter Smith saying Buffel was free to leave. However, the deal fell through when Buffel was unable to agree personal terms with the Bundesliga side. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rangers/6311741.stm|title=Buffel Bundesliga move collapses|date=31 January 2007 |publisher=BBC Sport Website]It was announced on
February 9 2007 that Buffel would undergo surgery on a long term knee injury and would not take any further part in the 2006-07 season. After a difficult start to the 2007-08 season he has been linked with a move away from Ibrox. He returned to action onDecember 26 as a substitute in Rangers' 3-1 win over Motherwell but did not feature regularly.Buffel's Rangers career came to an end when he joined former club
Cercle Brugge on1 July 2008 .International career
Buffel made his debut for Belgium against Andorra in October 2002 in what was to be a 1-0 victory.cite news|url=http://www.uefa.com/competitions/EURO/history/Season=2004/Round=1579/Match=69026/index.html|publisher=UEFA.com|title=Andorra 0-1 Belgium|date=12 October 2002] He has since then gained 30 caps and scored seven goals, although in recent times has only been a bit part player due to injuries and loss of form club level.
Honours
*
Scottish Premier League : 2004-05
*Scottish League Cup : 2004-05References
External links
*soccerbase|id=32954|name=Thomas Buffel
* [http://www.thomasbuffel.com Official Site of Thomas Buffel] (News, video, pictures, biography, statistics, etc)Persondata
NAME=Buffel, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH=February 19 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH=Oostkamp ,Belgium
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=
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