And Van Binst, who knew how to defend hard and attack elegantly on his flank, had a knack for choosing his evenings. During the 1976 final against West Ham (4-2 at Heysel), it was he who lifted the Cup of Cups first, armband on his arm. The first Belgian in history to do this. Two years later, against Austria Vienna (4-0), he was no longer captain, but he had scored two of Anderlecht’s four goals at the Parc des Princes.
gullI don’t intend to reach into my wallet.
This double, Van Binst told it in his own way, deadpan. “Each time on a pass from Ludo Coeckhe told our columns in October 2017. On the second, I send a left shot into the top corner from 20 meters. Luckily, my left was just what I needed to get into the bus. After the match, I called my wife to find out if I was being cuckolded. Raymond Goethals (Editor’s note: the coach) motivated me by telling me that my direct opponent, the Austrian Pirkner, would be my Waterloo because he was three times faster than me. ‘Except when he limps,’ he added. I got the message and hit him on the Achilles tendon. He stayed on the pitch, but I had the whole flank to myself.”
Van Binst will have been less happy in the national team. If everything started well when Goethals was coach, his life became complicated with the arrival of Guy Thys. With a match against the Netherlands as the breaking point in 1977. With disarming frankness, the right-back had explained a few days earlier that he had no intention of “hit his wallet”. Read: do no harm to Robbie Rensenbrink, the Dutch left winger who won so many matches for RSCA. He will never be called up again, leaving the way clear for Eric Gerets.
Van Binst, ex-Anderlecht star: “I have lost 20 kilos in two years. I feel weak and I have back pain”
After his Anderlecht chapter, at 29 years old, Van Binst will try, in vain, to bring Toulouse up to French D1. Then to relaunch his career for two seasons at Club Bruges where his greatest achievement was probably to have launched a kid in 1983 when, becoming an assistant, he took care of the Juniors, a certain Marc Degryse. His coaching career was not a success, neither in Wallonia (Namur) nor in Flanders (Lauwe, where he had the young Lorenzo Staelens and Hein Vanhaezebrouck).
Gilbert Van Binst died this Friday at the age of 73 in a care home in Zaventem after a long illness. The editorial staff of The Last Hour extends its condolences to his family and loved ones.
