Dries Mertens

Dries Mertens is a professional footballer from Belgium. He can play as both a forward and a winger. He is currently a member of the Napoli football club in Italy. Stade Leuven was where he began his youth career, and Eendracht Aalst was where he made his professional debut. Until joining Napoli in 2013, he had previously played for Gent, AGOVV, Utrecht, and PSV. He received numerous club and individual awards during his tenure with Napoli.

In 2011, Mertens made his senior international debut. In the 2018 FIFA World Cup, he was a member of the Belgian national football team, which finished in third place.

Mertens’ Instagram account has over 1.6 million followers.

What makes Dries Mertens so well-known?

• Belgian Footballer of the Year in 2016.

Where was Dries Mertens Born?

Dries Mertens was born on May 6, 1987, in the Netherlands. He was born in the Belgian city of Leuven. He is a Belgian citizen. His parents and siblings will be profiled in greater depth in the near future.

Timeline of Dries Mertens’ Football Career

• Mertens began his youth career in 1996 with Stade Leuven, a local club.
• In 1998, scouts from Anderlecht noticed Mertens and signed him to their youth academy.
• He was a member of the club’s academy for five years. He was released by the club in 2003 because he was too small and mentally unfit to play at the professional level.
• Gent, a Belgian Pro League team, signed him in 2003.
• After spending two years in Gent’s academy, the club loaned him to Endracht Aalst of the Belgian Third Division for the 2005-06 season.
• Gent loaned Mertens to the Dutch club AGOVV Apeldoorn at the end of the 2005-06 season.
• In 2007, the club made his transfer permanent.
• For the 2008-09 Eerste Divisie season, he was appointed the club’s new captain.
• In 2008, he won the Golden Bull award as the Eerste Divisie’s most talented player.
• He worked at AGOVV for three years. In 110 appearances for the club, he scored 31 goals in all competitions.
• In March 2009, he moved to Eredivisie club Utrecht, where he signed a 600,000 Euro contract.
• He won the Di Tommaso Trophy for Utrecht’s Player of the Season at the end of the 2009-10 season. He was also runner-up for the Dutch Footballer of the Year award to Luis Suarez of Ajax.
• He scored 21 goals in 86 appearances in all competitions during his two-year stay at Utrecht.
• In 2011, the club sold Mertens and Kevin Strootman to PSV Eindhoven for a total of 13 million euros.
• On August 7, he made his competitive debut for PSV in a 1-3 defeat to AZ. In his first game, he scored his first goal.
• He collided with Heracles goalkeeper Remko Pasveer near the end of the 2011-12 season, losing a number of teeth in the process. Three weeks later, one of his teeth was discovered stuck in Pasveer’s head.
• He was a member of the PSV team that won the KNVB Cup and the Johan Cruyff Shield in 2011-12.
• He was a key player for PSV the following season, when they finished second to Ajax in the Eredivisie.
• In two seasons with PSV, he scored 45 goals in 88 appearances across all competitions.
• In June 2013, he joined Italian club Napoli for a fee of 9.6 million euros.
• Rafael Benitez’s new boss, Napoli, made him his first signing.
• On August 25, 2013, he made his Serie A debut against Bologna.
• On October 30, 2013, he made his Napoli debut against Fiorentina.
• He was a member of the Napoli squad that won the Coppa Italia in 2013-14, beating Fiorentina 3-1. Mertens came on as a replacement in the final and scored.
• Mertens was also a member of the 2014 Mertens Supercoppa Italiana winning team. Napoli claimed the penalty shootout against Juventus.
• Until the 2016-17 season, he was mainly used as a backup striker for the club.
• Mertens was assigned the main attacking position following the departure of Gonzalo Higuain and the injury to Arkadiusz Milik.
• In a 5-3 victory over Torino in December 2016, he scored four goals. He had the fourth-fastest hat-trick in Serie A history when scoring four goals.
• He was elected Belgian Footballer of the Year in 2016.
• On February 4, 2017, Mertens and Hamsik both scored hat-tricks in a 7-1 away victory over Bologna. For the first time in the club’s history, Napoli scored seven goals in a single game.
• He was the league’s second-leading goalscorer in 2016-17, behind only Edin Dzeko.
• Since joining the club until the end of the 2018-19 season, he has 109 goals in 280 appearances in all competitions.
• After scoring a goal against Barcelona in the 2019-20 Champions League, he became Napoli’s joint all-time leading goalscorer with 121 goals in March 2020. In the same game, he suffered an injury.

International Career of Dries Mertens

• Before making his senior international debut, Dries Mertens was a member of the Belgian U17 team.
• In 2010, he was called up for the senior team to play Kazakhstan and Austria in a UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match. He wasn’t listed at the time.
• On February 9, 2011, he made his senior international debut against Finland in a friendly match.
• On August 15, 2012, he scored his first international goal against the Netherlands.
• He was a member of the Belgian national team that advanced to the 2014 FIFA World Cup quarterfinals.
• He and his father had bet that he would score in the tournament, and he had won. He shaved his father’s mustache as a reward for winning the bet, according to the wager. He shared the photo on his Instagram account.
• Mertens was a member of the Belgian national team that advanced to the UEFA Euro Cup quarterfinals in 2016.
• In addition, he was named to Belgium’s World Cup squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He mainly came on as a replacement in the games.
• In the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Belgium came in third place.

Individual Recognition

• 2006 Belgian Third Division Player of the Year
• Golden Bull of the First Division: 2008
• 2010 Di Tommaso Trophy
• 2016 Belgian Footballer of the Year
• 2016-17 Serie A Team of the Year

Who is Dries Mertens’s wife?

Dries Mertens is a husband and father. He has a wife named Katrin Kerkhofs. In 2015, the pair tied the knot for the first time.

What is Dries Mertens’ height?

Dries Mertens is 1.69 meters tall, or 5 feet and 7 inches tall. He has a robust physique. His eyes are dark brown, and his hair is black.

What is the net worth of Dries Mertens?

Dries Mertens makes a living as a professional football player. Contracts, wages, incentives, and endorsements all add to his earnings. He was confirmed to have joined Napoli for a fee of 9.5 million Euros. The specifics of his contract have not been revealed. As a result, his true earnings are uncertain. His net worth will be revised in the near future.