Early Career
In the early 1930s, the young Mermans, along with a couple of friends, could not afford to become members of FC Antwerp. Eventually, the boys tried their luck at Tubantia F.A.C. (a small club in the Antwerp suburb) and managed to force themselves a way into the youth team.
Five years later, Mermans entered the first team. His progress caught attention of the federal coach and Jef was selected for a Belgium B squad match against Luxembourg in January 1939. At this point, he received twice in two years a proposal to play in the Beerschot team, but Tubantia Borgerhout refused.
A member of the Anderlecht staff arrived at Borgerhout in 1942 with a blank check that was filled in with the record sum of 125,000 Belgian francs in a quarter of an hour.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Mermans
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it’s your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.”
—June Jordan (b. 1939)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)