The restless Belgium manager who is tasked with defending his talented but goal-shy stars like Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne, as also the on-field hell-raisers Trossard and Tielemans, is getting some belated adoration. Reason: Belgium’s unlikeliest of comebacks against Senegal to win 3-2.
Garcia, the 62-year-old coach of the Red Devils (a not well known name), has been dissed on for everything: his players are washed, his players are old, his players argue and fight, his players like Lukaku don’t play when needed, his players waste own talent and Belgium’s time. And he defends them like Antwerp diamonds. He also scribbles notes on random loose sheets of paper, wearing a ridiculous red thin tie and a cap at times.
The Frenchman copped intense criticism deep into the Senegal game when he seemed to be heading into a disaster, before the team emerged to fight back against the African champions. Garcia has left things till late, assured that Lukaku will do his things and opponents will wilt under Belgian pressure if it’s kept up. For that, he now has 9000 “atleast” who have written to him, telling Garcia they will not give up on him.
The Brussels Times reported that over 9,000 people have left a message Garcia via the website sorryrudi.be, which was set up in the aftermath of Belgium’s dramatic win against Senegal in the World Cup as many Red Devils fans felt remorseful for tearing into him.
The website asks, “Who still believed in Rudi Garcia in the 85th minute? Cursed en masse, answered masterfully. Time to apologize, together with Tout Bien Pils.”
The “Sorry Rudi” website.
29-year-old Brussels resident Luca Garcia (not related to Rudi) came up with the idea. “Just like many Belgians, I shouted ‘Rudi out!’ in the 85th minute at my television,” Luca told The Brussels Times. “Not much later, I had to swallow my words. Afterwards, I felt like I had to apologise to the national team manager. Rudi turned out to be a tactical mastermind.”
The turnaround led to about-turns which Belgians are rushing to post soon after
Lukaku scored in the 86th minute, as did Youri Tielemans just a few minutes later in the 89th minute – in three frantic minutes. Belgium had done this to Japan in 2022, so it’s simply a team that gets going late..
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But Luca, who works at the Lucy advertising agency in Brussels, decided to set up a website where people like him feeling they’d been harsh towards the national team’s manager can leave a message.
“A colleague who is good at coding and I built the website very quickly, as a joke, with the intention to send it to our friends who felt the same way after the game. And suddenly, we kept seeing the number of comments go up. It is all going really quickly,” Luca said.
It started with his own message: “From Garcia to Garcia: sorry Rudi, I’ll never doubt you again.”
Then Belgian beer brand Tout Bien, marketed by influencer and YouTuber Average Rob, joined up and the website quickly gained traction. It’s a mix of apologies, requests to get called up, selection suggestions for USA game and jokes: “If you don’t know what’s your next move, rivals won’t know either!”
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At the time of writing, 10,980 messages from fans to the Brussels website had sprouted for Rudi.
“As long as the messages are positive, everyone is welcome on the site,” Luca said. “The main aim is for this to actually reach Rudi Garcia, so that he knows there are at least 9,000 Belgians who are fully behind him.”
If Belgium beat USA, they will face either Spain or Portugal in the Quarter-finals.
“If we win against the US, I reckon the website might well get a few thousand more comments,” he told Brussels Times. “If we lose, we will keep an eye on the sort of comments that get posted to see whether the website can stay online for much longer.”
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“We will see what happens with the game first,” Luca said. “I, for one, will not be doubting his choices any more, and I’d advise Rudi not to listen to the critics. Even if nobody understands what he’s doing, it works.”
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