 Lombaerts in 2010 |
|||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Nicolas Robert Christian Lombaerts | ||
| Date of birth | 20 March 1985 | ||
| Place of birth | Brugge, Belgium | ||
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Centre back Left back |
||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Zenit Saint Petersburg | ||
| Number | 6 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Club Brugge | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2004–2007 | Gent | 76 | (1) |
| 2007– | Zenit Saint Petersburg | 134 | (8) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2000 | Belgium U16 | 1 | (0) |
| 2001–2002 | Belgium U17 | 3 | (0) |
| 2002–2003 | Belgium U18 | 12 | (0) |
| 2003–2004 | Belgium U19 | 19 | (2) |
| 2004–2007 | Belgium U21 | 15 | (1) |
| 2006– | Belgium | 24 | (2) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 December 2013. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 11 October 2013 | |||
Nicolas Lombaerts (born 20 March 1985 in Bruges) is a Belgian left-footed football defender who plays for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg[1] and the Belgium national team.
Club career
Brugge
Lombaerts joined Club Brugge
at young age where he went through all youth ranks. He claimed various
league titles at young age as he was part of a strong generation at
Brugge, with players such as Jason Vandelannoite, Glenn Verbauwhede and Thomas Matton.
Gent
As his ambition was to play in the starting lineup of a first
division team as soon as possible and Club Brugge was not able to
guarantee this, he moved to Gent where he soon was able to play almost every match in the 2005–06 Belgian First Division and also got his first appearance for the Belgium national football team. Apart from football, he was at that point still studying law at Ghent University. Several times he was selected for the Belgian national youth teams such as the Belgium national under-21 football team. Highlights were the 2004 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship and the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.
Zenit
In July 2007, Lombaerts chose a lucrative transfer to the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg in Russia.
At that point he quit his studies and chose for a football career.
Zenit eventually won its first Russian league title with the 2007 Russian Premier League. At the beginning of 2008, Lombaerts was sidelined for over half a year as the result of a knee injury. In the meantime without him, his team won the 2007–08 UEFA Cup and he also missed the 2008 Summer Olympics where Belgium became fourth.
Lombaerts finally made his return to Zenit on 19 July 2009, coming on in the 71st minute for Aleksei Ionov against Terek Grozny.
Even though Zenit were defeated 3-2, Lombaerts described the happiness
of taking the pitch again as similar to "a small child's joy when
walking into a shop full of sweets."[2] He then quickly became a fixture in defense for caretaker Anatoliy Davydov,
helping Zenit win six consecutive matches to get back into the title
hunt. On 29 November 2009, Lombaerts scored the game-winning goal
against rival Spartak Moscow to put Zenit into the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League as third-place team in Russia.[3]
On 5 July 2010, Lombaerts signed a four-year contract to remain with Zenit.[4]
International career
He has made his debut in full internationals in May 2006 in a friendly against Saudi Arabia,[5] and played 3 matches in Euro 2008 qualifying.
