Vanhaezebrouck was born in Kortrijk and raised in Lauwe.
Career
Hein Vanhaezebrouck is a former player of, among others KV Kortrijk, KRC Harelbeke and Sporting Lokeren. Vanhaezebrouck became the coach of soccer team KV Kortrijk on 1 July 2006. He replaced Manu Ferrera at that time. In the season 2005–06, he was still head coach of White Star Lauwe. Before, he also coached Sporting West. Hein Vanhaezebrouck is a coach who always wants to play-offensively. During the 2006 World Cup, he was also an analyst and co-commenter on VT4 and since a few years, he is also an analyst on Sporting Telenet. In the season 2007–08 Vanhaezebrouck won the title with Kortrijk in Second Division. In the Belgian Cup, Kortrijk finished in the quarter finals against KAA Gent, despite a 5–1 victory in the home game. This confrontation and the offensive play of Kortrijk aroused the interest of KAA Gent to succeed Trond Sollied as head coach. However, at the end of April 2008, Vanhaezebrouck signed a contract renewal of two years at Kortrijk. Right there, he became well known for the acquisition of Google-striker Istvan Bakx. Vanhaezebrouck discovered Bakx by Internet browserGoogle. At the start of the 2009–10 season, Vanhaezebrouck went to KRC Genk. Right there, he failed at the start, which created doubts about him rising. He was fired as coach of KRC Genk on 29 November 2009. At that time, Genk was 12th in the ranking after 16 games. His successor was Franky Vercauteren. In June 2010, Vanhaezebrouck decided to return to KV Kortrijk in the 2010–11 season. In that season, the team needed to be satisfied with a 10th spot in the rankings. The next year, the team played Play-off 1 and reached the cup final, losing it against Sporting Lokeren with a 1–0 score. On 10 May 2013, it was announced that he re-signed a contract at KV Kortrijk. In May 2014, he decided to leave KV Kortrijk for KAA Gent. There, he reached his biggest success, as he won, after his championships with Kortrijk in Third and Second Division, also the championship with Gent in First Division in 2015, after a 2-0 victory against Standard Liège, and met European success with KAA Gent, in both the UEFA Champions League, reaching the 2nd round, and in the UEFA Europa League, reaching the 3rd round. In October 2017 Vanhaezebrouck decided to sign for RSC Anderlecht. The first season was extremely disappointing On 17 December 2018 Vanhaezebrouck was sacked by RSC Anderlecht.
