Former Red Devil Stéphane Demol died on Thursday from a heart attack at the age of 57, R.S.C Anderlecht and the Belgian Football Union announced on Thursday evening.
Trained at Anderlecht, Stéphane Demol made his first-team debut for the club in 1984. After three league titles (1985, 1986, 1987) and a Belgian Cup with Sporting, he left the Parc Astrid for Bologna in 1988.
A year later, he signed for FC Porto, with which he won the Portuguese championship in 1990, before moving on to Toulouse, then returning to Belgium with Standard in 1991. He lifted another Belgian Cup with Les Rouches in 1993, then moved to Cercle de Bruges for a season.
The defender went on to gain experience abroad, before ending his playing career in 2000 at Halle.
First called up by Guy Thys to the national team for a match against Bulgaria in April 1986 (2-0), Stéphane Demol had a total of 38 caps with the Red Devils, with whom he played in the World Cups in Mexico in 1986 and Italy in 1990.
Demol scored just one goal for the national team, but a mythical one: against the USSR in the famous Round of 16 at the 1986 World Cup, where the Diables went on to reach the semi-finals, but were eliminated by Diego Maradona’s Argentina.
Stéphane Demol became a coach in 2000, coaching Charleroi in 2009 and serving as a T2 at Standard (2005-2006) and in the national team alongside René Vandereycken (2006-2008).
He also coached a number of foreign clubs, including in Cyprus, Greece, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
