Marked for Jessi Da Silva
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match12 Dec 2026
Lierse left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Simon Mignolet to a room that had heard them before.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
The leaders are next for Club NXT
Waasland-Beveren top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Sem Audoor: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Club NXT will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jessi Da Silva is on it.
Market14 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tian Nai Koren’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Chances created: 6. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Club NXT
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Gomez van Hoogen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Club NXT
Sem Audoor and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market16 Nov 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Club NXT has been clear about where Alexander Vandeperre stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Lucas Delorge knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Delorge trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Club NXT
Position 16 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Rayan Buifrahi at 21 — 8.00
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rayan Buifrahi did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match31 Oct 2026
Three points for Club NXT, 2‑1 the final word against Jong Genk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
RSCA Futures next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Samuel Gomez van Hoogen has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Jessi Da Silva takes the afternoon — 8.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jessi Da Silva provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match24 Oct 2026
Francs Borains left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Club NXT
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Gomez van Hoogen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andre Garcia, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad26 Oct 2026
At 18 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Jong Genk in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.82 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match17 Oct 2026
It had gone 8 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Alejandro Granados has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alejandro Granados. 1‑0 against Lokeren-Temse, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Club NXT training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Gomez van Hoogen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Club NXT
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jakke Van Britsom is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Club NXT against Lommel
0‑1 to Lommel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Club NXT
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Gomez van Hoogen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Club NXT
Tobias Jensen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Simon Mignolet to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Andre Garcia
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Wout Verlinden knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wout Verlinden trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Jessi Da Silva will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Club NXT escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Match19 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Club NXT
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Jessi Da Silva, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Andre Garcia is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match19 Sep 2026
Club NXT are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Club NXT
Sem Audoor and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match19 Sep 2026
It needed Jessi Da Silva to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Eupen, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Simon Mignolet chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Club NXT
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match29 Aug 2026
Jessi Da Silva scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to RFC Liege, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Tian Nai Koren did the work nobody counts — 6.80
9 combined actions and 6.80. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Stefan Ostoici is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 17. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Club NXT people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Club NXT's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Club NXT has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
Club NXT cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Jessi Da Silva has come up in conversations Club NXT were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Club NXT
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tian Nai Koren was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Aug 2026
RWDM left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Sem Audoor did the work nobody counts — 7.13
11 combined actions and 7.13. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Simon Mignolet left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Shots: 10, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Club NXT say no — this time
The offer from Lommel for Jessi Da Silva was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Argus Vanden Driessche and Club NXT agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Club NXT
Argus Vanden Driessche and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Sacha Marloye has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.39 on the card, and the Club NXT support went home talking about one name.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Simon Mignolet after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Tian Nai Koren asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The form table has caught Andre Garcia
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I want to play”: Sem Audoor speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.