Belgium U18

Tubize sits south-west of Brussels, and since 2005 the town has hosted the Belgian Football Centre, the RBFA Academy where the country trains its young national sides. The Belgium under-18 team is one of them, run out of the Academy Stadium.

The side wears the same red shirts and black shorts as the senior Red Devils, a link that matters more here than at most levels, since the under-18s exist mainly to pass players upward toward the under-19 group. Friendlies against sides like England U18 and the Netherlands U18, along with entries in the Pinatar Cup and the Slovakia Cup, make up most of its calendar rather than a settled domestic competition.

The team's one outright title dates back to 1977, when it won the European Under-18 Championship, then still run as the FIFA Junior Tournament. Belgium had already shown at that level before that: third place in the first edition in 1948, and again in 1949 and 1951, before the 1977 win. A fourth-place finish followed in 1996, and nothing has matched 1977 since.

Two names carry the record books at this level. Jean-François Gillet holds the most appearances, with 19, while Émile Mpenza is the side's leading scorer, on six goals. The team's story, in the end, still runs back to that patch of ground near Brussels where the Belgian federation decided its youngest sides needed a home of their own.