Belgium's Last Dance: Why The Red Devils' Golden Generation Is Out Of Time
2018: third place. The Golden Generation peaked. Eight years later, KDB is 35, Lukaku is 33, and Belgium have one shot left. Group G is winnable. The clock is not.
Belgium's Golden Generation peaked in 2018 and has been in slow decline ever since. The 2026 World Cup is genuinely their last chance to deliver on a generation of talent that should already have a major trophy. Group G says yes. The squad's age says hurry up.
This isn't a sad story yet. It's a warning. Belgium have the players, the path, and one realistic remaining window. If they don't use it, the conversation shifts permanently from "Golden Generation" to "best team to never win anything significant." That is a brutal epitaph for Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and a decade of arguably the best Belgium squad ever assembled.
Why Belgium's Golden Generation Failed To Win A Major Trophy
The numbers are bleak. Belgium have been ranked number one in the world. They reached a World Cup semi-final in 2018 and lost to France. They lost to Italy in Euro 2020's quarter-finals. They went out of 2022 in the group stage. Three tournaments at or near peak squad quality. No final. No trophy.
The reasons are complicated but the thread is consistent: Belgium have had individual excellence and tactical incoherence at the same time. They've tried to fit De Bruyne, Hazard (before injury took him), Lukaku, Mertens, Carrasco and others into systems that didn't fully serve any of them. The 2022 squad argument between De Bruyne and Lukaku became a convenient symbol for a deeper dysfunction — a group of elite players who never quite became a cohesive team.
Rudi Garcia is now the manager. He brings structure and European experience. The question is whether he can do in one tournament what his predecessors couldn't do across a decade.
Kevin De Bruyne's Last World Cup: What Belgium Need From Him
De Bruyne turns 35 before the tournament starts. He is still, on his day, the best midfielder in European football — a player who sees passing angles that don't exist until he creates them, who can change a game from any position on the pitch, who has the kind of technical authority that