He was shaped in the unsurpassed goalkeeper academy in Beveren. Filip De Wilde embodied sober solidity. After the departure of Jean-Marie Pfaff to Munich, he seized the opportunity at Beveren, but competition remained intense. This continued after Jean-Marie Pfaff’s retirement, when Michel Preud’homme appeared as number one. Only with Georges Leekens did Filip De Wilde become Belgium’s number one, although he had to keep fighting biases and the ghosts of his predecessors.