There was a huge verbal altercation between three first-team Belgium players following their shock defeat to Morocco.
There have long been rumours that there was a lack of harmony within the squad, and those rumours intensified when De Bruyne insisted the side was “too old” to win this year’s World Cup. Following the defeat, Vertonghen then sarcastically quipped: “I guess we attack badly because we are also too old up front.”
Reports now suggest that after the match, there was a huge altercation between Kevin De Bruyne, Jan Vertonghen and Eden Hazard, with striker Romelu Lukaku forced to intervene.
🚨 There was a BIG altercation between Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen yesterday.
Romelu Lukaku intervened and stopped the altercation. 😳
(Source: @rtlinfo) pic.twitter.com/itvBHIcarI
— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) November 28, 2022
The disharmony among the ranks does not stop there, however. and it is rumoured that Lukaku and Batshuayi, and Hazard and Lisandro Trossard also don’t see eye to eye. Whilst De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois also haven’t spoken for many years due to personal reasons away from the pitch.
With this possibly being Belgium’s last World Cup with many of their key players in the squad, they appear to have allowed inflated egos to stop the ‘golden generation’ from achieving any real success in tournament football.