Rene Vandereycken hasn't forgotten the day he named Jan Vertonghen in the Belgium squad for the first time.
"A French-speaking journalist turned to his Dutch-speaking colleague and asked: 'Jan Vertonghen, who is that?'", Vandereycken -- Red Devils manager from 2005 to 2009 -- recalled this week.
In the French and Flemish regions of Belgium, Vertonghen, who had spent the season on loan at Dutch club RKC Waalwijk from Ajax, was a complete unknown ahead of his international debut against Portugal in June 2007.
Vandereycken did not think Vertonghen had any outstanding individual qualities but he was planning for the future, and felt the "driven and calm" 20-year-old had potential.