Clubs: R. Charleroi SC, R. Standard de Liège, Olympique de Marseille, Manchester City FC (loan), Hamburger SV, FC Bayern München  

UEFA honours
UEFA Champions League: runner-up 2010

• Born in the French-speaking Walloon part of Belgium, his first senior team was Charleroi. He left for the region's major club, Standard, in 1999.

• Voted rookie of the year at the end of his first season with Standard, he became a Belgian international in his second, scoring a vital late equaliser in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Scotland in Glasgow on only his second outing.

• Joined Marseille in summer 2001, where he had three seasons which ended with a loan move to Manchester City.

• Moved to Germany, his mother's birthplace, in 2004, joining Hamburg; scored seven goals in 61 Bundesliga games and was appointed captain but received an irresistible offer from Bayern in 2006 and left to some consternation among HSV supporters.

• Won the Bundesliga/German Cup double in 2007/08 but failed to tie down a permanent place in the Bayern defence until the arrival of Louis van Gaal.

• Scored Bayern's first goal of their 2009/10 UEFA Champions League campaign, against Maccabi Haifa FC, and played from start to finish of the club's defeat by FC Internazionale Milano in the final.

• Went into the Madrid showpiece seeking to win the treble with Bayern having been a key member of the squad which secured another Bundesliga/German Cup double in the weeks beforehand.

• Scored Belgium's first goals of UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying, two headers during the Red Devils' second match, in a 3-2 loss to Turkey on 7 September 2010.