Nicolas Lombaerts

Lombaerts joined Club Brugge at young age where he went through all youth ranks. He claimed various league titles at young age as he was part of a strong generation at Brugge, with players such as Jason Vandelannoite, Glenn Verbauwhede and Thomas Matton.

As his ambition was to play in the starting lineup of a first division team as soon as possible and Club Brugge was not able to guarantee this, he moved to Gent where he soon was able to play almost every match in the 2005–06 Belgian First Division and also got his first appearance for the Belgium national football team. Apart from football, he was at that point still studying law at Ghent University. Several times he was selected for the Belgian national youth teams such as the Belgium national under-21 football team. Highlights were the 2004 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship and the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

In July 2007, Lombaerts chose a lucrative transfer to the FC Zenit Saint Petersburg in Russia. At that point he quit his studies and chose for a football career. Zenit eventually won its first Russian league title with the 2007 Russian Premier League. At the beginning of 2008, Lombaerts was sidelined for over half a year as the result of a knee injury. He received knee injury in UEFA Cup game against Villarreal CF during the attack that led to the only away goal against the Spanish team. His actions in this game (goal assist by header) later on have been regarded by Zenit fans as one of the most important steps in the subsequent victory in UEFA Cup. In the following games without him, his team won the 2007–08 UEFA Cup and he also missed the 2008 Summer Olympics where Belgium finished fourth.

Lombaerts finalmente regresó al Zenit el 19 de julio de 2009, entrando en el minuto 71 en sustitución de Aleksei Ionov contra el Terek Grozny . Aunque el Zenit fue derrotado por 3-2, Lombaerts describió la felicidad de volver a pisar el terreno de juego como similar a "la alegría de un niño pequeño al entrar en una tienda llena de dulces". ^{[ 2 ]} Rápidamente se convirtió en un jugador clave en la defensa del interino Anatoliy Davydov , ayudando al Zenit a ganar seis partidos consecutivos y volver a la lucha por el título. El 29 de noviembre de 2009, Lombaerts marcó el gol de la victoria contra su rival, el Spartak de Moscú , clasificando al Zenit para la Liga de Campeones de la UEFA 2010-11 como tercer clasificado en Rusia. ^{[ 3 ]}

El 5 de julio de 2010, Lombaerts firmó un contrato de cuatro años para permanecer en el Zenit. ^{[ 4 ]}

El 24 de marzo de 2017 se anunció que, tras 10 temporadas con el Zenit, Lombaerts regresaría a Bélgica para la temporada 2017-18, fichando por el KV Oostende . ^{[ 5 ]} Jugó su último partido oficial, el número 289, con el Zenit el 17 de mayo de 2017 contra el FC Krasnodar y fue homenajeado por el club. ^{[ 6 ]}

El 30 de julio de 2019 se anunció que el club quería rescindir su contrato a cambio de una indemnización de 300.000 euros y que sería enviado al equipo B. El club atravesaba problemas financieros tras la marcha del propietario Marc Coucke, por lo que querían prescindir de Lombaerts y su elevado salario. ^{[ 7 ] [ 8 ]}