Simon Mignolet

Simon Mignolet

Mignolet playing for Liverpool in 2013
Personal information
Full name	Simon Luc Hildebert Mignolet[1]
Date of birth	(1988-03-06) 6 March 1988
Place of birth	Sint-Truiden, Belgium
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[2]
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team	Liverpool
Number	22
Youth career
2004–2006	Sint-Truiden
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2006–2010	Sint-Truiden	100	(1)
2010–2013	Sunderland	90	(0)
2013–	Liverpool	113	(0)
National team‡
2003	Belgium U16	1	(0)
2004	Belgium U17	2	(0)
2005–2006	Belgium U18	11	(0)
2006–2007	Belgium U19	3	(0)
2009	Belgium U20	1	(0)
2008–2010	Belgium U21	10	(0)
2011–	Belgium	17	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 16 September 2016 (UTC). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 21:45, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Simon Luc Hildebert Mignolet (Dutch pronunciation: [simɔn miɲɔlɛ]; born 6 March 1988) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Liverpool and the Belgium national team.

Mignolet started his career with Belgian Second Division side Sint-Truiden in 2004, and spent six years with the club, making 100 senior league appearances and scoring a goal. He moved to Premier League side Sunderland in June 2010^[3] for £2 million, spending three years with them and making 101 appearances across all competitions before moving to Liverpool in June 2013 for £9 million.^[4]

Mignolet has represented the Belgian national team at every level from the Under-16s upwards. He made his senior debut in 2011, has since earned over 15 caps, and was named in their squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Sint-Truiden

Mignolet was born in Sint-Truiden, Belgium. He first joined his local football team, Belgian Second Division side Sint-Truiden, in 2004, eventually rising through their youth system to become their first-choice goalkeeper in 2006 at the age of just 18 after the departure of Dušan Belić. In 2009 he made 29 appearances and scored a penalty in the league, as he helped Sint-Truiden to win the Belgian Second Division, and was named Belgian Goalkeeper of the Year the following year after he helped Sint-Truiden to avoid relegation.

Sunderland

Simon Mignolet with Sunderland in 2011

After being invited for a training ground tour, Mignolet signed a five-year contract at Premier League club Sunderland on 17 June 2010 in a deal worth £2 million.^[5][6] It was later confirmed by Sint-Truiden that Sunderland had beaten PSV Eindhoven, FC Twente and Udinese to securing Mignolet's signature.^[7]

Mignolet made his Sunderland debut in a 2–2 draw against Birmingham City on 15 August 2010, and was named man of the match for his performance. In the next home game, a 1–0 victory against Manchester City, Mignolet kept his first clean sheet for Sunderland, following an excellent reaction save to deny Emmanuel Adebayor a goal. Mignolet put in another fine performance against Arsenal, as Sunderland drew 1–1 after Darren Bent equalised in the 95th minute. Craig Gordon would replace Mignolet in goal several weeks later however, and remained first choice thereafter. Mignolet did not feature again until 8 January 2011, when Sunderland suffered a loss at home to Notts County in the third round of the FA Cup. Mignolet would become first choice keeper again after a knee injury to Gordon in February, and earned a string of rave reviews for his performances.^[8] Following the draw, manager Steve Bruce hailed the young keeper's fine start to life in English football.^[9] Mignolet cemented his position as first choice keeper the following season, being preferred to new signing Keiren Westwood in goal.^[10] On 29 October 2011, Mignolet was injured during a 2–2 draw with Aston Villa, suffering a broken nose following a collision with Emile Heskey.^[11]

Mignolet played every single game of the following season, keeping a large number of clean sheets and producing several man of the match performances.^[12][13] His form prompted Manchester City and England keeper Joe Hart to praise Mignolet in December 2012 as being the best goalkeeper in the league so far that season.^[14] On 21 June 2013, it was reported Liverpool had agreed a deal to sign the player for around £9 million.^[15]

Liverpool

Mignolet playing for Liverpool in 2014.

On 25 June 2013, Mignolet signed with Liverpool for a fee of £9m on a five-year deal.^[16] Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers hailed Mignolet as being "one of the top goalkeepers in the Premier League".^[17] On 13 July 2013, he made his unofficial debut for Liverpool in a 4–0 win in a pre-season friendly over Preston North End.^[18] On 17 August 2013, Mignolet made his official debut in the 1–0 home win against Stoke City at Anfield; in the 89th minute of the game, he saved a Jonathan Walters penalty, as well as Kenwyne Jones' follow up shot, to preserve Liverpool's lead and effectively win the game.^[19] He then recorded two more clean sheets against Aston Villa and Manchester United, with both matches ending 1-0 to Liverpool. Two weeks later, he conceded his first goals for Liverpool in the Premier League in a 2–2 draw with Swansea City, though he was still named man of the match for the fixture. Mignolet was also named man of the match in the 3–3 draw with Everton, making a total of 9 saves throughout the course of the game.

On 14 December 2014, Mignolet's run of 53 consecutive Premier League starts came to an end as he was replaced by Brad Jones in the starting eleven against Manchester United with manager Brendan Rodgers saying Mignolet would be dropped for an "indefinite period".^[20] However, 12 days later, Jones went off injured after 16 minutes away at Burnley, and despite some errors, Mignolet kept a clean sheet in a 1–0 victory.^[21] After this match Mignolet kept four consecutive clean sheets against Sunderland, Aston Villa, West Ham and Everton respectively.^{[22][23][24][25]} On 10 February Mignolet made some outstanding saves against Tottenham in a 3-2 win.^[26] On March 16, Mignolet continued his resurgence in a 1-0 victory against Swansea City, keeping a clean sheet as part of a strong performance.^[27] On 22 March, he saved a penalty taken by Wayne Rooney in a 2-1 defeat against Manchester United.^[28]

On 18 January 2016, Mignolet signed new five-year deal with the club.^[29] Eight days later, he saved a penalty from Stoke City's Peter Crouch and Marc Muniesa in a penalty shoot-out to send Liverpool to the 2016 Football League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium.^[30]

Although he started the first five games of the season, Klopp dropped him in favor of new signing Loris Karius on 24 September 2016 against Hull City.^[31] On 24 October 2016, Klopp confirmed that he was no longer the first-choice keeper and that he will be given the cup-ties instead.^[32]

International career

Mignolet (middle) with Belgian team-mates Vincent Kompany (left) and Kevin De Bruyne in 2013

Mignolet first represented the Belgian under-21 side in 2008, and went on to make ten appearances for the side.^[33] On 1 September 2010, he won his first call up to the Belgian senior squad after a good run of form for Sunderland.^[34] He made his full international debut in a 2–0 victory over Austria on 25 March 2011 in a UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match.^[33][35] He remained in the starting line-up for each of the four remaining qualifying matches,^{[36][37][38][39]} in addition to playing in three friendly matches during the qualifying campaign.^[33] However, he was unable to help Belgium qualify for the Euro 2012 finals, as a 3–1 defeat against Germany saw them finish third in their qualifying group.^[40] Mignolet played in two further friendly internationals during the 2011–12 season, starting against Greece and England.^[41][42] Following the match against England, however, he did not play an international match for four months, with Thibaut Courtois being preferred instead.^[43] He returned to the starting lineup on 14 November 2012, in a 1–2 friendly loss over Romania.^[44] His next international match came over six months later, in a 4–2 friendly victory over the United States on 29 May 2013.^[45]

Mignolet served as back-up goalkeeper during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, with Courtois playing every minute as Belgium qualified for its first major tournament since the 2002 World Cup.^[46]

On 10 October 2015, Mignolet started for an injured Courtois in Belgium's last two UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying matches; a 4–1 win over Andorra and a 3–1 victory over Israel, helping seal Belgium's qualification for the first time since co-hosting UEFA Euro 2000.^[47]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 25 October 2016.^[48]

International

As of 13 November 2015^[49]

Honours

Club

Sint-Truiden^[48]

• Belgian Second Division: 2008–09

Individual

• Belgian Goalkeeper of the Year: 2009–10
• Sunderland's Player of the Year: 2013
• Liverpool Player of the Season (given by former players): 2014–15^[50]

Personal life

Mignolet can speak English, French, Dutch and German.^[51] He has a degree in political science from the Catholic University of Leuven.^[52] On 20 June 2015 Mignolet married his girlfriend Jasmien Claes in his hometown.^[53]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Simon Mignolet.

• Liverpool F.C. profile
• Simon Mignolet career statistics at Soccerbase
  
• Belgium stats at Belgian FA
• Simon Mignolet at National-Football-Teams.com

Belgium squads
Belgium squad – 2014 FIFA World Cup 1 Courtois 2 Alderweireld 3 Vermaelen 4 Kompany (c) 5 Vertonghen 6 Witsel 7 De Bruyne 8 Fellaini 9 Lukaku 10 Hazard 11 Mirallas 12 Mignolet 13 Bossut 14 Mertens 15 Van Buyten 16 Defour 17 Origi 18 Lombaerts 19 Dembélé 20 Januzaj 21 Vanden Borre 22 Chadli 23 Ciman Coach: Wilmots Belgium squad – UEFA Euro 2016 1 Courtois 2 Alderweireld 3 Vermaelen 4 Nainggolan 5 Vertonghen 6 Witsel 7 De Bruyne 8 Fellaini 9 R. Lukaku 10 Hazard (c) 11 Carrasco 12 Mignolet 13 Gillet 14 Mertens 15 Denayer 16 Meunier 17 Origi 18 Kabasele 19 Dembélé 20 Benteke 21 J. Lukaku 22 Batshuayi 23 Ciman Coach: Wilmots