Wilmots faces blissful retirement

Former Belgian international Marc Wilmots has announced that he will retire at the end of the season after receiving a prestigious national award for sporting excellence.

Prestigious award
The 33-year-old FC Schalke 04 forward, who quit the international stage after this summer's FIFA World Cup, became the first footballer since Jan Ceulemans in 1990 to be awarded the Belgian Trophée du Mérite Sportif this week, and only the fourth footballer ever to receive the award, completing an illustrious quartet with Paul Van Himst in 1974 and Michel Preud'homme in 1989.

Family support
"I am not a guy for individual honours," he said. "I play a team sport and there are so many people who helped me: my surgeon, my physiotherapist, all my team-mates and coaches in my career but especially, my wife, Catherine. She earned a law degree after five years of university but never became a lawyer in order to help me in my career."

Belgian respect
"We planned every move I made together," added Wilmots, who shone for Belgium at the World Cup in Korea/Japan. "And we did it well, even if the respect for my achievements only came when I arrived in Germany. It is only since then that I was considered as an added member of the national team."

Retirement plans
However, the award was tinged with sadness for many Belgian supporters as Wilmots announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season to dedicate more time to family life after seeing 12 knee operations fail to cure a longstanding problem.

'I am not finished'
"Now, after a minor knee problem, I am back in the team in Schalke and ready to play if I am asked to," he said. "But one thing is sure: I will stop after this season. I have had too many operations and I have to think about my family. We have two kids and I want them to go to school in Belgium now and my wife will look for a job in the legal sector."

Highest level
The decision brings an end to a superb career. Having started out at Jodoigne, Wilmots spent three seasons with K. Sint Truidense VV before joining KV Mechelen in 1988, where he won a UEFA Super Cup in 1988 and the Belgian title the following year.

Off to Schalke
He moved to R. Standard de Liège in 1991, and was a valued performer at the Sclessin stadium, helping the club to win the 1993 Belgian Cup, before venturing abroad for the first of two spells with Schalke. He was at the Parkstadion between 1996 and 2000 before spending a season at FC Girondins de Bordeaux and subsequently moving back to Gelsenkirchen again.

International achievements
His achievements with the national side were no less impressive as he played in three World Cup finals with Belgium, earning 70 caps in the process and scoring 28 goals. It would have been more but for a goal that was controversially disallowed in Belgium's game against Brazil in Korea/Japan - his final appearance for his country.

'I have time'
Wilmots said he had no concrete plans after retirement and did not seem to be immediately considering a career in coaching. "Myself? I do not know," he said. "But I am still in good shape and have two good arms. I can go and help my father Leon in his farm in Dongelberg. Why not? I have time and everything I need to be happy."