Date of birth: 24.10.1987

Country: Belgium

Position: Defender

Just seven weeks after making his RSC Anderlecht debut, prodigious right-back Anthony Vanden Borre became the second youngest player ever to be named in a Belgium squad.

Club

That international debut completed a meteoric rise for Vanden Borre, who had only pulled on an Anderlecht shirt for the first time in a league game against RSC Charleroi on 13 March 2004 aged 16 years and five months. In total, he made eight appearances as Les Mauves won the championship in his first season. Although his second campaign was to end trophyless, the starlet scored three times in 22 games as Anderlecht regained their Belgian crown in 2006 – form which prompted the club to hand him an improved contract until 2010.

National team

Made his first Belgium start in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in Serbia and Montenegro and scored his first goal in a May 2006 friendly against Saudia Arabia.

Did you know?

When he came on for the final minute of the 3-2 loss to Turkey on 28 April 2004, the 16-year-old beat the record set by Paul van Himst - Belgium's Player of the Century - who was 17 years and 17 days when he received his first call-up in 1960, but could not eclipse the mark set by Fernand Nisot in 1911.