<P> During the national player career of forward Paul Van Himst, the most - praised Belgian footballer of the 20th century, Belgium took third place at Euro 1972 . After that, they experienced two golden ages with many gifted players . In the first period, which lasted from the 1980s to the early 1990s, the team finished as runners - up at Euro 1980 and fourth in the 1986 World Cup . In the second, under guidance of Marc Wilmots in the 2010s, Belgium topped the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in November 2015 . Belgium qualified for the next World Cup, in 2018, and will thereafter participate in League A of the first UEFA Nations League edition . </P> <P> Belgium was one of the first mainland European countries to play association football . Its practice in Belgium began on 26 October 1863, after an Irish student walked into the Josephites College of Melle with a leather ball . Initially an elitist pastime, during the following decades association football supplanted rugby as Belgium's most popular football sport . On 1 September 1895, ten clubs for football, athletics, cricket and cycling founded the Belgian sports board Union Belge des Sociétés de Sports Athlétiques (UBSSA); a year later UBSSA organised the first annual league in Belgian football . </P> <P> On 11 October 1900, Beerschot AC honorary president Jorge Díaz announced that Antwerp would host a series of challenge matches between Europe's best football teams . After some organisational problems, on 28 April 1901, Beerschot's pitch hosted its first tournament, in which a Belgian A-squad and a Dutch B - team contested the Coupe Vanden Abeele . Belgium won, and beat the Netherlands in all three follow - up games; FIFA does not recognise these results because Belgium fielded some English players . On 1 May 1904, the Belgians played their first official game, against France at the Stade du Vivier d'Oie in Uccle; their draw left the Évence Coppée Trophy unclaimed . Twenty days later, the football boards of both countries were among the seven FIFA founders . At that time, the Belgian squad was chosen by a committee drawn from the country's six or seven major clubs . In 1906, the national team players received the nickname Red Devils because of their red jerseys, and four years later, Scottish ex-footballer William Maxwell replaced the UBSSA committee as their manager . From 1912, UBSSA governed football only and was renamed UBSFA . During the Great War, the national team only played unrecognised friendlies, with games in and against France . </P> <P> At the 1920 Summer Olympics, in their first official Olympic appearance, the Red Devils won the gold medal on home soil after a controversial final in which their Czechoslovak opponents left the pitch . This triumph led them to an all - time high second place in the World Football Elo Ratings . In the three 1920s Summer Olympics, they achieved fair results (four wins in seven games), and played their first intercontinental match, against Argentina . Over the following decade, however, Belgium lost all of their matches at the first three FIFA World Cup final tournaments . According to historian Richard Henshaw, "The growth of (football) in Scandinavia, Central Europe, and South America left Belgium far behind". Although World War II hindered international football events in the 1940s, the Belgian team remained active with unofficial matches against squads of other allied nations . </P>

Where did the nickname red devils come from