Mike Penders
Squad number 13 · Strasbourg
Their 2026 World Cup
Mike Penders travelled to the 2026 World Cup with Belgium, wearing number 13, without ever getting on the pitch. His side played 6 matches (3 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat) and bowed out in the quarter-finals, beaten by Spain 2-1.
The goalkeeping job went to T. Courtois (6 matches, 551′) and S. Lammens (1 match, 19′).
Another 2 players in the Belgium squad ended up the same way, without a single minute. The full run is on the Belgium team page.
Biography
Mike Louis Penders (born 31 July 2005) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Chelsea and the Belgium national team.
Genk Penders is a youth product of Boorsem Sport and Bregel Sport, before moving to the academy of Genk in 2018. On 30 April 2021, he signed his first contract with Genk. On 25 May 2022, he extended his contract until 2025. In the 2022–23 season, he was promoted to their reserve team Jong Genk. He made his debut in a 4–1 victory against Lierse. On 23 August 2023, he again extended his contract until 2028. He was made captain of Jong Genk in the 2023–24 season Following the departure of Maarten Vandevoordt and injury to Hendrik Van Crombrugge, Penders made his senior debut with the Genk first team in a 0–0 Belgian Pro League tie with Standard Liège on 28 July 2024. At 18 years and 363 days, he was the third youngest goalkeeper to debut in the history of the league. In January 2025, Genk coach Thorsten Fink announced that Penders would be the team's starting goalkeeper for the remainder of the 2024–25 season.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) · text adapted from the article.
See all the tournament stats on the World Cup data hub.