Leandro Trossard
Leandro Trossard (born 4 December 1994) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion and the Belgium national team. Trossard is a Genk youth academy product. Club career. Genk. Trossard joined the K.R.C. Genk youth academy from the Bocholt academy in 2010. He was promoted to the senior squad in 2012, making his first, albeit brief, debut on 13 May 2012 in a league match against K.A.A. Gent. The game ended 3–1 in favor of Gent. Trossard was introduced in the 87th minute, replacing Stef Peeters. Those three minutes were the only  ones he played in the league that season. For several seasons, he was consistently sent out on loan. As a result, he didn't score his first league goal for Genk until over four years later, coming in a 4–1 away loss to K.V. Kortrijk on 25 September 2016. He was brought on as a substitute for Leon Bailey and scored in the 63rd minute, assisted by Bryan Heynen. In January 2013, Trossard was sent out on loan to Lommel United. In twelve league appearances, he scored seven goals. His debut for Lommel came on 3 February 2013 in a  1–0 away loss to Sint-Truiden. He was introduced as a substitute in the 63rd minute, coming on for Thomas Jutten. Arguably, the greatest game during his loan spell was his hat-trick in a 3–2 home victory over K.F.C. Dessel Sport, in front of 2000 fans at the Soevereinstadion. He scored one in the 11th minute, another in the 60th (from the penalty spot), and the last in the 74th. He was subbed off in the 88th minute. In July 2013, Trossard was loaned out to K.V.C. Westerlo. In 17 league appearances, he scored three goals. The first of  these goals came on 9 August 2013 in a 2–0 away win over his former club Lommel United. He scored in the 74th minute. He made his debut on 3 August 2013 in a 2–2 home draw with A.F.C. Tubize. This was also his first start for the club. Trossard helped Westerlo to promotion to In July 2014, Trossard was loaned out to Lommel United again. He continued his goal scoring form, finding the net 16 times in 33 league matches. He scored his second career hat-trick for Lommel on 22 March 2015 in a 6-0 demolition of  Racing Mechelen. His goals came in the 33rd, 61st, and 69th minutes. That season, Lommel were only nine points off promotion back to the top flight. In July 2015, Trossard was loaned out again, this time to OH Leuven. In 30 league matches, he scored eight goals. He made his Leuven debut on 25 July 2015 in a 3–1 away loss to the club he had been loaned out from in Genk. Genk didn't enforce the rule of not allowing loanees to play against them, as he was brought off the bench in the 61st minute, replacing Yohan Croizet . His first league goal for Leuven came on 16 August 2015 in a 2–0 victory over Charleroi. He made an immediate impact off the bench. He was brought on for Yohan Croizet in the 82nd minute, and scored in the 85th. Brighton & Hove Albion. On 26 June 2019, Brighton agreed to sign Trossard, who joined on a four-year deal, becoming the club's second signing of the summer, following Matt Clarke’s arrival from Portsmouth. Trossard made his debut for "The Seagulls" on 17 August where he scored the equaliser in the 1–1 home draw against West Ham United . Earlier in the game he was denied a goal for offside by VAR. Trossard scored twice against Norwich in the 2019–20 season, one in the 2–0 home victory on 2 November 2019, and again in a crucial 1–0 away win on 4 July 2020 to help Brighton push further away from the bottom three. On 31 January 2021, Trossard scored the only goal in a 1–0 home win over Tottenham Hotspur to secure the Seagulls' first home league win of the 2020–21 season. Trossard played in Brighton's 1–0 away victory over defending champions Liverpool on 3 February claiming their  first league win at Anfield since 1982, where he deflected Steven Alzate's shot back onto Alzate being awarded the assist in the only goal of the game. On 14 March 2021, Trossard scored the winner in a 2–1 away win over Southampton, sealing Brighton's first win over the Saints in Premier League history. Trossard scored the first goal of Brighton's come back from 2–0 down to beat champions Manchester City 3–2 on 18 May, with fans returning to football. Trossard scored his first goal of the 2021–22 season on 11 September, firing in a 90th-minute winner  scoring the only goal of the game in the 1–0 away win over Premier League newcomers Brentford. He conceded a penalty by barging into Conor Gallagher away at Crystal Place in the first M23 derby of the season on 27 September, where Wilfried Zaha converted the spot kick to take "Palace" 1–0 up at the break. However, Neal Maupay scored a 90+5th-minute equaliser to take a point back to the south coast. Trossard scored Brighton's equaliser away at Liverpool on 30 October, completing a stirring fightback, coming from 2–0 down to earn a 2–2 draw. He  enjoyed his time in North London in April 2022 by scoring two goals in two games against Arsenal and Tottenham. Opening the scoreline in the 2–1 victory at Arsenal on the 9th and scoring a 90th minute winner at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on his 100th "Albion" appearance, seven days later. This was his six goal of the season, making it his best scoring season since joining the Sussex club. International career. Trossard has been called up to the Belgium national football team on multiple occasions. Roberto Martinez first named him in the Belgium squad in September 2018, again one  month later when Trossard had to withdraw through injury, Trossard remained on the bench again in March 2019. He made his debut on 5 September 2020 in a Nations League game against Denmark, he substituted Dries Mertens in the 80th minute of the 2–0 away victory. On his first international start, Trossard scored his first goal for his country also adding a second in a 8–0 crushing of Belarus in a 2022 World Cup qualifier on 30 March 2021. Trossard was named in Belgium's 26-man squad for Euro 2020 on 17 May 2021, with the tournament taken place  in the summer of 2021 due to the previous year's postponement as a result of Coronavirus. He made his first appearance of the tournament in Belgium's final group match against Finland on 21 June with Belgium already through to the knockouts. Trossard started the match later being replaced by Thomas Meunier in the 75th minute of the 2–0 victory at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg that secured the Belgian's top spot of Group B. This turned out to be his only game as Belgium were knocked out by Italy in the quarter final after a 2–1  defeat at the Allianz Arena in Munich on 2 July. In October 2021, Trossard was a part of Belgium's squad for the UEFA Nations League Finals in Italy. He made two substitute appearances where Belgium lost to France in the semi-final and losing again to Italy in the third-place match to come fourth. In a international friendly at home against Burkina Faso on 29 March 2022, Trossard scored his third goal for his country, where he also assisted Hans Vanaken's and Christian Benteke's goals in the 3–0 Belgium win.