In the Summer of 2011, Thomas Meunier joined Club Brugge, hailing from third divisionists Virton. The previous team in charge of Club had signed him for four years in the Winter of 2010, but allowed him to stay at Virton for the remainder of the season.
“No need to be in the spotlights”
Thomas Meunier
“A now world opened up to me when I arrived here: an absolute top team with a huge fanbase, a perfect infrastructure, even a different language. By no means this could be compared to what I was used to. My ambition was to make it to the selection every once in a while, and to gather some playing minutes. But in the end the ball got rolling much sooner than expected. I earned my place in the starting line-up quite early in the season, managed to score a goal in my first game against Westerlo, and played in Europe. Fabulous!
Right now I need to keep growing." It can be hard to imagine Het Meunier still working as a shop manager in Bastogne only one year ago, playing football in third division quite anonymously. "At a certian point I also thought: this is all too good tob e true, i’ll end up on the bench at one point. But quite the contrary: after the change of coach, I was still in the starting line-up in the derby against Cercle. It may have come as less as a surprise then. Both under Adrie Koster and under Christoph Daum I always tried to do my best at training, so I can’t say the places in the starting line-up were stolen." After his first noted appearances in Club’s first team, the forward, enjoying part of his schooling at Standard de Liège, and also sparking the interest of Anderlecht, has been compared with Club legend Gert Verheyen (because of his willingness to work for the team) and hot shots the likes of Ivan Perisic (because of his tallness). “Those are great compliments to be receiving, but I think it would be way too early days to be comparing myself to Gert or Ivan. I would love to mirror myself to the Brazilian Kaká in that respect, an awfully good player who doesn’t need to be put in the spotlights like other players, like Ronaldinho or Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s how I am too. The only thing that counts, is what you show on the pitch, not what you are saying in the newspapers. My ultimate dream would be playing in England, more in particular at Manchester United. There’s still some work to do!”