FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template

Enzo Scifo, the elegant lynchpin of the Belgian national side for more than a decade, has earned his place in international football’s officer class.

But it as a humble foot soldier that the 32-year-old midfielder arrived in France to take part in his fourth World Cup finals. Under the uncompromising regime of coach George Leekens, every Belgian player, no matter how big a star, has been forced to accept that they have no automatic right to selection.

“That time is over,” Leekens, who has retained the nickname “Mac the Knife,”  since his days as a tough defender, told AFP. “For me the first and foremost thing is the team and who is playing in this position or that position is not so important.” Any doubts about Leekens’ commitment to this philosophy were dispelled in February when he unceremoniously dropped an out-of-form Scifo for a friendly against the United States without so much as a telephone call to warn him.

It is not clear if Leekens was simply trying to stamp his authority on the squad or whether he was genuinely considering not taking his biggest star to France.

But whatever the real story was, the decision and the way it was handled, came as a severe blow to the pride of a player who, despite being born and brought up in Belgium, retains his Sicilian ancestors’ fierce attachment to being treated with respect. Within hours of the squad being named Scifo had announced his retirement from international football, sparking howls of protest from a disbelieving public.

Perhaps crucially for Scifo’s subsequent return to the fold, it was not only the supporters who were stunned by Leekens’ action. By the time he was dropped, the brewing giant Interbrew, sponsors of the national team, had already printed hundreds of millions of francs worth of World Cup advertising, in which Scifo figured prominently. Interbrew’s role in ensuring that Scifo was persuaded out of retirement in April with a guarantee of a recall to the squad remains murky. But an upturn in Scifo’s form for his club Anderlecht helped smooth things over and both he and Leekens are now anxious to put the feud behind them and and concentrate on preparing to face arch rivals Holland, Mexico and South Korea in a tough first round group in France. “To play in any World Cup finals is an honour but to get there four times is quite exceptional,” says Scifo.

He admits that Leekens’ Belgium may not have as many outstanding individuals as the other World Cup squads he has been part of, particularly the 1986 selection that reached the semi-finals in Mexico. “But collectively we are as strong as any of them,” he insists. The new emphasis on the system rather than individuals has seen Scifo moved from his traditional role behind the two front strikers to the right of midfield-a position that significantly increases his defensive responsibilities.

“I will have to make more sacrifices but if that is what it takes for Belgium to do well then I am ready to do it,” he says, indicating that, even if he does not talk to Leekens very often, he has learned to speak the coach’s language.

In theory, Scifo could make it into the even more exclusive club of players to appear in five finals. Only Mexican goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal, who played in the 1950, 54, 58, 62 and 66, has done that to date but, barring last-minute hiccups, he will be joined by Germany’s Lothar Matthaus this summer.

Scifo will only just have turned 36 by the time of the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea and Anderlecht have been experimenting this season with playing him as a sweeper.

But the acceleration that made him such a dangerous player in his prime has already gone and it is widely thought he will retire definitively after France.

One goal will take him past Jan Ceulemans as the Belgium’s leading scorer in World Cup football and provide a fitting climax to an illustrious 14-year international career.

One theory even has it that it is because he intends to retire that since his return to the team, Scifo has opted for the shirt number 14, instead of the traditional number 10 with which he had become synonomous.

The player himself has maintained a strict silence but all will be revealed after the finals, he promises.