Steven Defour

Steven Defour

Defour playing for Anderlecht in 2015
Personal information
Full name	Steven Arnold Defour
Date of birth	(1988-04-15) 15 April 1988 (age 29)
Place of birth	Mechelen, Belgium
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Burnley
Number	16
Youth career
1993–1997	Zennester Hombeek
1997–2004	Mechelen
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2004–2006	Genk	30	(1)
2006–2011	Standard Liège	127	(13)
2011–2014	Porto	65	(3)
2014–2016	Anderlecht	63	(9)
2016–	Burnley	20	(1)
National team‡
2003	Belgium U15	5	(1)
2003–2004	Belgium U16	11	(1)
2004–2005	Belgium U17	11	(1)
2005	Belgium U18	1	(0)
2006–	Belgium	51	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21:23, 4 April 2017 (UTC). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 15:42, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Steven Arnold Defour (born 15 April 1988) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Burnley and the Belgian national team.

In his senior career he played for Genk, Standard Liège, Porto and Anderlecht, winning nine major titles the second and third teams combined.

Defour gained his first cap for Belgium in 2006, and represented the nation in the 2014 World Cup.

Born in Mechelen, Defour played youth football with local KV Mechelen, moving to K.R.C. Genk in 2004 due to the club's financial difficulties. He made his Pro League debut during the 2004–05 season and, at just 17, became first-choice, finishing the 2005–06 campaign with 26 games and one goal to help his team to the fifth position.

When Genk failed to qualify for European competition, Defour tried to move to AFC Ajax in the summer of 2006. Genk, enraged by earlier reports that the Dutch team had approached the player to broker a deal without their consent, did not accept the proposed transfer fee and after protracted negotiations Ajax pulled out of the deal. Defour tried to force a transfer by threatening to leave, using a Belgian law that allowed professional athletes on fixed-term contracts to leave their employers before the end of the stipulated term, but Ajax did not express a renewed interest in his services and he ended up signing for Standard Liège for a much-reduced transfer fee, effectively breaking a gentlemen's agreement between Belgian sides not to sign under-contract players using the aforementioned law.