What happened to Belgium and their golden generation?

And yet they remain the only nation to have held that spot without ever winning a major trophy.

“Overall, this generation definitely had what it took to achieve the big goal of winning a title,” says Jean-Marie Pfaff, the cult hero goalkeeper who was part of the side that reached the 1980 European Championships final and the 1986 World Cup semi-finals.

“Unfortunately, this didn’t work out because the players rarely played as a real team, with one player running for another. The burden was on a few individual shoulders, which was not enough.”

Belgium were brilliant at the 2018 World Cup – beating Brazil in the quarter-finals – only to come up agonisingly short in the semi-finals against would-be champions France.

But, for all the hype and hope, that was as good as it got. Like 2016, Euro 2020 ended in the quarter-finals. The 2022 World Cup saw them slump out at the group stages amid retirements, the resignation of Roberto Martinez and talk of rifts among the squad.

Former midfielder Radja Nainggolan was reported as admitting they were a team of too many individuals trying to stand out.

It continued under Martinez’s replacement, the young former Leipzig coach Domenico Tedesco. Soon enough Courtois had placed himself in self-imposed exile citing a lack of confidence in the new manager.

“The side actually had a very good qualification campaign for Euro 2024,” says Bart Lagae, journalist with Belgian newspaper De Standaard.

“It surprised people because with Hazard and others gone, they thought the golden generation was already over.

“But there was a new manager with a new system, new players like Jeremy Doku who thrived on the counter attack.”

But after an unbeaten road to Germany, the tournament ended with last-16 defeat to France. They had only scraped through to the knock-outs after a draw with Ukraine that saw fans turn on the side in Stuttgart.

“Things didn’t progress,” adds Pfaff. “Performances stagnated, there was no sign of development and the results weren’t right.

“Key players were too often missing through injury, and there were repeated internal differences, which did not help matters and were a constant disruptive factor.”