THE OTHER NATIONAL TEAM · BELGIUM
During the men’s World Cup, FemGol will trace the history of some of the women’s national teams from the countries taking to the pitch. Because a country’s football doesn’t fit in a single team.
Tonight, Belgium face Senegal with their World Cup campaign on the line. Romelu Lukaku will once again be one of the leading figures in a national team whose story has revolved around his goals for years. But when Belgian football first crossed the 100-goal international mark, the shirt was not the one worn by the Red Devils.
It belonged to the Red Flames.
On 7 March 2026, Tessa Wullaert walked onto the pitch against Israel with 98 international goals and returned to the dressing room with 101. The captain scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 victory, with the second taking her to a figure no player had ever reached for a senior Belgian national team, male or female: 100 international goals.
She added four more during qualifying for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. Wullaert now has 105 goals for Belgium and continues to extend a record that had already belonged to her before she reached three figures. She did not overtake Lukaku in March: she had already drawn level with his 85 goals against Greece in October 2024 and moved ahead of him by scoring against Ukraine a month later.
Reaching 100 merely confirmed something that had long been apparent. The leading goalscorer in the history of Belgium’s national teams does not play for the Red Devils.
She plays for the Red Flames.
Wullaert made her senior debut in 2011. By then, Belgium’s women’s national team already had 35 years of history behind it without having appeared at a single major tournament. Its first recognised international had been played on 30 May 1976 and ended in a 2-1 victory over France. What followed were decades of unsuccessful qualifying campaigns, tournaments watched from the outside and a wait that did not end until 2017.
Belgium needed 41 years to reach their first European Championship.
That debut did not last beyond the group stage, but it produced a significant first victory, a 2-0 win over Norway. Five years later, the Red Flames took another step forward. They drew with Iceland, defeated Italy and reached the quarter-finals of Women’s EURO 2022. Sweden eliminated them with a late goal, but Belgium had broken into the continent’s final eight for the first time.
Progress was not linear. At Women’s EURO 2025, now coached by Iceland’s Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir, Belgium lost to Italy and Spain and were eliminated before beating Portugal in their final group match. The team left Switzerland having conceded eight goals in three games and without matching the run they had produced three years earlier.
Even so, it was their third consecutive European Championship. Something that had remained beyond their reach for four decades was beginning to feel routine.
The World Cup, however, remains beyond the final door.
The Red Flames have never appeared at a World Cup or an Olympic Games. They came close to reaching the 2023 tournament but were eliminated in the play-offs. Now they once again have the chance to break through the final barrier still standing in their way.
Belgium competed in League B during the first phase of qualifying for Brazil 2027 and finished unbeaten. They won four matches, drew both games against Scotland, scored 22 goals and conceded only one. Wullaert was also the team’s leading scorer, with eight goals in six matches.
Despite those figures, the Red Flames finished second behind Scotland on goal difference.
Their path must now continue through the play-offs.
In October, they will face Poland over two legs. Should they advance, they will meet either Kazakhstan or the Republic of Ireland in another two-legged tie between late November and early December. The draw has therefore mapped out Belgium’s entire European route towards Brazil.
Winning both ties would not automatically guarantee direct qualification. The seven best-ranked winners from the second round will reach the World Cup, while the eighth will have to enter the inter-confederation play-off tournament in February 2027. The Red Flames must win two ties and hope their journey ends in Brazil rather than at one final stop along the way.
This attempt does not belong to one exceptional goalscorer alone. The Red Flames currently sit 18th in the FIFA rankings, one place below their all-time high, and have established themselves in a part of European football where seeing them compete with the strongest teams no longer comes as a surprise.
Much of that journey, however, can be measured through Wullaert. She was there for the 2017 debut, captained Belgium during the quarter-final run in 2022, played at their third consecutive European Championship in 2025 and now leads another attempt to reach the World Cup.
Her goals tell the story of a national team that went from waiting decades for its first major tournament to feeling that qualification alone is no longer enough.
Tonight, Belgium play to remain at a World Cup. In October, the Red Flames will begin playing to reach one for the first time.
Wullaert has already gone where no Belgian international had gone before. The 100 goals belong to her.
The one number Belgium are still missing is one: their first World Cup.
