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Eric Maria Gerets (; born 18 May 1954) is a Belgian football manager and former player.
As a striker, he started his playing career as an amateur for his local team AA Rekem, before achieving success as a right-back with Standard Liège and PSV Eindhoven. Nicknamed "The Lion (of Flanders)", Gerets was regarded as one of the top right-backs in Europe at his peak and is considered one of the greatest players in Belgian football history. He is famous for having captained PSV to their first and only European Cup win in 1988.
As a coach, Gerets is one of six managers – along with José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Giovanni Trapattoni, Tomislav Ivić and Ernst Happel – to have won top domestic league championships in at least four countries.
Gerets played for Standard Liège, A.C. Milan, MVV Maastricht and PSV Eindhoven, winning among others the 1987–88 European Cup, two Belgian championships and six Eredivisie.
Gerets was an offensively-minded right-back, known for his stamina, tactical discipline, grit and mental toughness. In combination with his physical appearance (hair blowing in the wind, a full but elegant beard, slumped trunk) he was soon nicknamed "The Lion". He was also known for long distance .
With Standard, Gerets eventually won 2 national titles, a National Cup, a Super Cup and a League Cup.
In the following years, Gerets would be regularly honored as a true club icon ("Best PSV team ever", "PSV player of the century", "PSV Walk of Fame").
At the 1982 World Cup, Belgium, captained by Gerets, recorded one of their most famous victories with a 1–0 win over defending champions Argentina in the first game of the tournament held at Camp Nou with a goal by Erwin Vandenbergh, and an excellent defensive display to hold off a young Diego Maradona. Four years later, they achieved their best World Cup run at that time in 1986 when they placed fourth under command of players like Jan Ceulemans, Jean-Marie Pfaff and captain Gerets. Belgium surprisingly won against favourites the Soviet Union with stars such as Igor Belanov and Rinat Dasayev (3–4) after extra time.
Belgium also beat Spain on penalties, but they lost to eventual champions Argentina in the semi-final (0–2), inspired by Maradona. Despite their defeat, Belgium would end up in fourth place – their best finish in World Cup competition until it was surpassed in 2018 when they reached third place.
36 year-old Gerets would also captain his nation to the 1990 World Cup finals. Belgium failed to convert their chances against England in the second round. They lost in the last minute of extra time after a goal by David Platt. After a few qualification matches for the 1992 European championship, Gerets decided to quit international football early 1991 to focus on his club career with PSV Eindhoven.
For decades, he was the third-most capped player for the Belgium national team, with 86 appearances and two goals.
In his first year with Marseille in 2007, he managed to get the team from the bottom of the league up to finish their 2007–08 season in third place. In 2009, Gerets turned down an offer of the RBFA to coach the Belgian national team after Rene Vandereycken was sacked. On 29 April 2009, he confirmed that he would not be in charge of Marseille after the summer when his contract expired. On 26 May 2009, he signed a contract to take over as head coach of Saudi club Al-Hilal FC for two years for an annual fee of €1.8 million. On 6 July 2010, he signed a four-year contract with Morocco. He would do the job part-time until he completed the Asian Champions League campaign with Al Hilal but stranded in the semi-finals. He was in charge of Morocco for almost two years. He was sacked on 15 September 2012 after a Morocco's 2–0 defeat against Mozambique in the first-leg of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualification.
Less than a month after leaving Morocco, he accepted a contract offer to become the head coach of Qatari defending champions Lekhwiya SC on 9 October 2012. In the 2013–14 season, he brought another Qatari championship title to Lekhwiya.
Gerets departed Lekhwiya and became the head coach of the United Arab Emirates team Al Jazira Club on 20 May 2014. He completed his two-year contract and decided to retire as club coach.
He did hint that he might only be active as a coach of a country. Gerets was subsequently regularly mentioned as a top candidate for the position of head coach of Belgium. But due to health problems, he would never become it. In 2013, Gerets suffered a brain hemorrhage. Since then, his health has gradually deteriorated and he has difficulty speaking and walking. In 2022, he was diagnosed with cerebral calcification.
| +Appearances and goals by club, season and competition ! rowspan="2" | Club ! rowspan="2" | Season ! colspan="3" | League ! colspan="2" | National cup ! colspan="2" | UEFA ! colspan="2" | Other ! colspan="2" | Total | |||||
| Standard Liège | 1971–72| rowspan="12" First Division | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 1 | 0 | ||||
| 1972–73 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 | — | — | 11 | 0 | ||||
| 1973–74 | 30 | 1 | — | 12 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 44 | 1 | |||
| 1974–75 | 37 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 43 | 6 | ||
| 1975–76 | 34 | 6 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 35 | 6 | ||||
| 1976–77 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1 | — | 39 | 2 | |||
| 1977–78 | 25 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | — | 34 | 2 | |||
| 1978–79 | 33 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | — | 40 | 4 | |||
| 1979–80 | 27 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 0 | — | 42 | 3 | |||
| 1980–81 | 29 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 0 | — | 45 | 0 | |||
| 1981–82 | 31 | 3 | — | 10 | 0 | — | 41 | 3 | ||||
| 1982–83 | 33 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | — | 35 | 3 | |||
| AC Milan | 1983–84 | Serie A | 13 | 1 | 7 | 0 | — | — | 20 | 1 | ||
| MVV Maastricht | 1984–85 | Eredivisie | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | — | — | 4 | 0 | ||
| PSV Eindhoven | 1985–86 | Eredivisie | 29 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | — | 34 | 0 | |
| 1986–87 | 30 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | — | 35 | 1 | |||
| 1987–88 | 30 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 0 | — | 44 | 6 | |||
| 1988–89 | 31 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 43 | 1 | ||
| 1989–90 | 33 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | — | 44 | 1 | |||
| 1990–91 | 24 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 28 | 0 | |||
| 1991–92 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | — | 27 | 1 | |||
| Belgium | 1975 | 0 |
| 1976 | 0 | |
| 1977 | 0 | |
| 1978 | 0 | |
| 1979 | 0 | |
| 1980 | 1 | |
| 1981 | 0 | |
| 1982 | 0 | |
| 1983 | 0 | |
| 1984 | 0 | |
| 1985 | 0 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 0 | |
| 1988 | 0 | |
| 1989 | 0 | |
| 1990 | 0 | |
| 1991 | 0 | |
| + List of international goals scored by Eric Gerets |
| Euro 1980 |
| Euro 1988 qualifier |
| Liège | July 1992 | June 1994 |
| Lierse | July 1994 | June 1997 |
| Club Brugge | June 1997 | June 1999 |
| PSV Eindhoven | July 1999 | May 2002 |
| 1. FC Kaiserslautern | September 2002 | February 2004 |
| VfL Wolfsburg | April 2004 | May 2005 |
| Galatasaray | June 2005 | May 2007 |
| Marseille | September 2007 | June 2009 |
| Al-Hilal FC | July 2009 | November 2010 |
| Morocco | July 2010 | September 2012 |
| Lekhwiya SC | October 2012 | May 2014 |
| Al-Jazira | June 2014 | June 2015 |
Belgium
Individual
1. FC Kaiserslautern
Marseille
Al-Jazira
Individual
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