Wouter Vrancken

Wouter Vrancken started his playing career as a youth at lower division clubs, beginning at Oud Groot Gelmen, progressing through Concordia Duras, Sporting Aalst-Brustem and KSK Tongeren, before ending up in the Belgian top flight with home-town club Sint-Truiden. During the build-up to the 1997–98 season, Vrancken moved on from the youths set-up into the Sint-Truiden first team at the age of 18. Vrancken made his professional debut on 13 September 1997, in the First Division against RWDM. Vrancken initially combined football with studying for a Bachelors in PE, but was soon urged by STVV coach Poll Peters to stop his studies and concentrate on his football career instead. After his first season in the Belgian Pro League, Vrancken was attracting interest from Racing Genk, but STVV did not follow through on a deal. After eight seasons at the Stayen, Vrancken moved to Gent, forming a good midfield partnership with Mbark Boussoufa for one season together, before both secured transfers elsewhere: Boussoufa to Anderlecht, Vrancken to Genk, who finally came good on their previous interest. Vrancken immediately became vice national champion in his first season with Genk, 2006–07, finishing runners-up five points behind champions Anderlecht. Having enjoyed two seasons in Limburg, Vrancken moved to Mechelen in August 2008, signing a four-year deal. 18 months into his time with the Yellow-Reds, Vrancken moved to Georges Leekens-coached Kortrijk during the 2009–10 winter break in a…

Start of coaching career

After seven years coaching in the lower divisions, beginning with part-time roles in the fourth division at RDK Gravelo and Overpelt VV while working in accountancy, Vrancken had a one-year spell back in the top-flight as assistant to Glen De Boeck at Kortrijk for the 2017–18 season.

Mechelen

Vrancken took charge at recently-relegated Mechelen in the summer of 2018, guiding the club back to the Belgian Pro League at the first attempt, winning Division 1B and the 2018–19 Belgian Cup, beating Gent 2–1 in the final at the King Baudouin Stadium. Mechelen are the first club ever to do such a double, and only the second club in history from outside the Belgian top-flight to win the Cup. However, due to match-fixing investigations from the season Mechelen were relegated (2017–18) prior to Vrancken's hiring, the Yellow-Reds were not allowed defend the Cup or to play in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League. Vrancken steered Mechelen into top-eight finishes for the next three seasons - the highest being sixth in the curtailed 2019–20 season - but feeling the club were not ambitious enough to start competing higher up the table, departed for Racing Genk in the summer of 2022.

Racing Genk

Losing their opening game of the season 3–2 away to champions Club Brugge, Genk then went on an unbeaten run of 15 games, winning 14, propelling them to the top of the 2022–23 Belgian Pro League. They would stay top to the end of the regular season,…

Manager

Mechelen

Belgian Cup: 2018–19 Racing Genk

Belgian Pro League: runner-up 2022–23 Individual

Belgian Golden Shoe: Best Coach of the Calendar Year: 2022