He revelled in fame and supremacy during his career but he didn’t trade on it later on. Visitors to his home would remark there were no trophies, not even a photo of him from back in the day. Similarly in 2017 when Herentals townhall wanted to make a statue of him, Van Looy agreed on the condition was it was made in his image as an octogenarian...L’Equipe branded him the “silent emperor”
