Hein Vanhaezebrouck (born 16 February 1964) is a Belgian football manager He was most recently head coach of Belgian Pro League club K.A.A. Gent. He has a reputation of favouring an offensive style of play.

Early life

Vanhaezebrouck was born in Kortrijk and raised in Lauwe.

Career

Hein Vanhaezebrouck is a former player for KV Kortrijk, KRC Harelbeke and Sporting Lokeren, among other clubs. Vanhaezebrouck left White Star Lauwe to become the coach of KV Kortrijk on 1 July 2006, replacing Manu Ferrera. In 2007–08 Vanhaezebrouck led Kortrijk to promotion to the first division by winning the second division title. In the Belgian Cup, Kortrijk were beaten in the quarter finals against KAA Gent, despite a 5–1 victory in the home game. KAA Gent expressed interest in him as a possible successor to Trond Sollied as head coach. However, at the end of April 2008, Vanhaezebrouck renewed his contract for two years (until 2010) at Kortrijk. He became well known for the acquisition of Google-striker Istvan Bakx. Vanhaezebrouck discovered Bakx by Internet browser Google. At the start of the 2009–10 season, Vanhaezebrouck went to KRC Genk. He was fired as coach of KRC Genk on 29 November 2009. At that time, Genk was 12th in the ranking after 16 games. His successor was Franky Vercauteren. In June 2010, Vanhaezebrouck decided to return to KV Kortrijk for the 2010–11 season. The team finished tenth in the rankings. The following year, the team reached the cup final, losing 1–0 against Sporting Lokeren. On 10 May 2013, it was announced that he had re-signed with KV Kortrijk. In May 2014, he decided to leave KV Kortrijk for KAA Gent. There, he reached his biggest success, as he won, after his championships with Kortrijk in Third and Second Division, also the championship with Gent in First Division in 2015, after a 2-0 victory against Standard Liège, and met European success with KAA Gent, in both the UEFA Champions League, reaching the 2nd round (season 2015-2016), and in the UEFA Europa League, reaching the 3rd round (season 2016-2017). In October 2017 Vanhaezebrouck signed for RSC Anderlecht. The first season was extremely disappointing and on 17 December 2018 Vanhaezebrouck was sacked. During the 2006 World Cup, he was an analyst and commenter on VT4, and has since 2016 served as analyst on Sporting Telenet.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

**AA Gent **

Individual