CONNECTIONS
Part 8 Marc De Clerck, by Andrew Boyd

Have you heard the story of the Belgian goalkeeper who scored a goal in England* after joining a Scottish club from a club in Holland? This is, probably, the highlight of the career of MARC DE CLERCK...

Marc was born in Belgium on 27th December 1949. During season 1970-71 he made his professional debut for La Gantoise. In the summer of 1974 he transferred to FC Twente Enschede. FC Twente were however blessed with the talents of Piet Schrijvers as first choice goalkeeper, because of this Marc only played two competitive games in two seasons.

In 1976 Marc moved to Heracles Almelo where he spent three seasons. After this he spent one season with Go Ahead Eagles Deventer. In the summer of 1980 he moved to Scotland to join Aberdeen.

Signed by Alex Ferguson, Marc moved to Aberdeen at, probably, the worst time for a goalkeeper. Originally signed as cover for Bobby Clark, Marc found himself trying to displace Jim Leighton. It appears that Marc was something of a goalkeeping coach helping in the development of Leighton and Bryan Gunn.

Gunn is noted to have been full of praise for some the techniques that De Clerck introduced to training. On 30th August 1980 Marc created a little piece of history by scoring a goal on his debut in a Scottish League Cup tie. In the game away to Berwick Rangers his drop kick caught both the Berwick centre-half and goalkeeper off guard and the ball bounced into the net. This appears to be just about his main contribution to the history of Aberdeen FC.

After one season with Aberdeen (1980-81), Marc returned to Heracles where he also spent one season. This is followed by one season with De Graafshap before he returned to Belgium and Harelbeke. This takes us to the mid-1980s' and something of a total blank. after its career, Marc become manager at Beveren. More recently he has been manager at KRC Gent-Zeehaven.

KAA Gent (Belgium)
FC Twente (Holland)
Go Ahead Eagles (Holland)
FC Aberdeen (Scotland)
De Graafschap (Holland)
Harelbeke (Belgium)

* Although Berwick play in the Scottish League their ground is in England.

* Bobby Clark was widely regarded as one of Scotlands' finest goalkeepers. On 20th September 1969 he played a full game against St Johnstone as a centre-half (wearing the number 6 shirt), after losing his position to Ernie McGarr.