Victor Vandenbroucke DOB: 9/27/2008 Position: Forward (per here) Nationality: USA / Belgium / Honduras '08 listed as a forward and is said to captain the Gent U16s. He looks to have been consistently in Belgian camps, and he was again called up the Belgian U16s earlier this month. The Honduran press has a number of articles on him, and a 2019 profile from a Belgian outlet includes confirmation from his father that Victor is US-born. It's a paywalled article with more details from his father, but here's the little bit that confirms that (Google Translated): In summary, his father shares Victor was born in the US, lived here for a few years before the family moved to Belgium, moved back to the US in 2014, played a couple years up with LAFC, then the family moved back to Belgium in 2019 where he joined Gent. It seems reasonable to infer that his father is Belgian and his mother is Honduran, if not having multiple nationalities themselves. His Instagram and TikTok both have USA, Belgian, and Honduran flags as well. Also, a shoutout to @RobtheAggie who is very knowledgeable on Belgium and additionally shared his digging in the Detective Work thread.
He is going to be a tad difficult to follow early on. Gent does not usually post scores for their youth teams. So this might be an on again and off again thread. Great work by @UniversalAdvice to uncover this one.
Victor Vandenbroucke 🇧🇪🇺🇸🇭🇳 ('08) captaining KAA Gent vs FC Barcelona in the KDB Cup from this summer pic.twitter.com/BtfTLNYcqG— USA Ballers Abroad ⚽️ (@USBallersAbroad) September 3, 2024
Quick update. Has made the squad three times for the U18 Elite 1 team for Gent. Two starts and once on the bench. Not bad for a 16 year old. Looks like a pretty competitive league for him to be a part of. There are 18 total matchdays.
Kind of an odd season, at least what I can find for his playing time. 450 total minutes and 5 matches. He did also play all 90 min for the Belgian U17 team vs Luxemburg U17.