Simon Mignolet

Sint-Truiden

Mignolet was born in Sint-Truiden. He first joined his local football team, Belgian Second Division side Sint-Truiden, in 2004, eventually rising through their youth system to become their first-choice goalkeeper in 2006 at age 18 after the departure of Dušan Belić. In 2009, he made 29 appearances and scored a rebound after his penalty was saved during a 5–1 away win in the league against K.S.K. Ronse, as he helped Sint-Truiden to win the Belgian Second Division, and was named Belgian Goalkeeper of the Year the following year after he helped Sint-Truiden avoid relegation.

Sunderland

After being invited for a training ground tour, Mignolet signed a five-year contract with English Premier League club Sunderland on 17 June 2010 in a deal worth £2 million. It was later confirmed by Sint-Truiden that Sunderland had beaten PSV, Twente and Udinese to secure Mignolet's signature. Mignolet made his Sunderland debut in a 2–2 draw against Birmingham City on 15 August 2010, and was named man of the match for his performance. In the next home match, a 1–0 victory against Manchester City, Mignolet kept his first clean sheet for Sunderland, following an excellent reaction save to deny Emmanuel Adebayor a goal. Mignolet put in another fine performance against Arsenal, as Sunderland drew 1–1 after Darren Bent equalised in the 95th minute. However, Craig Gordon would replace Mignolet in goal several weeks later, and remained first-choice thereafter. Mignolet…

Mignolet first represented the Belgian under-21 side in 2008, and went on to make ten appearances for the side. On 1 September 2010, he won his first call up to the Belgian senior squad after a good run of form for Sunderland. He made his full international debut in a 2–0 victory over Austria on 25 March 2011 in a UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match. He remained in the starting line-up for each of the four remaining qualifying matches, in addition to playing in three friendly matches during the qualifying campaign. However, he was unable to help Belgium qualify for the Euro 2012 finals, as a 3–1 defeat against Germany saw them finish third in their qualifying group. Mignolet played in two further friendly internationals during the 2011–12 season, starting against Greece and England. However, following the match against England, he did not play an international match for four months, with Thibaut Courtois being preferred instead. He returned to the starting lineup on 14 November 2012 in a 1–2 friendly loss over Romania. His next international match came over six months later in a 4–2 friendly victory over the United States on 29 May 2013. Mignolet served as back-up goalkeeper during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, with Courtois playing every minute as Belgium qualified for its first major tournament since the 2002 World Cup. On 10 October 2015, Mignolet started for an injured Courtois in Belgium's last two Euro 2016 qualifying matches: a 4–1 win over Andorra and a…

Club

International

Mignolet can speak Dutch, English, French and German. He has a degree in political science from the Catholic University of Leuven. On 20 June 2015, Mignolet married his girlfriend Jasmien Claes in his hometown. Their son, Lex, was born in October 2019. Their second son, Vin, was born in March 2022.