Marked for Jonathan Coenen
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 2027
Gary Magnée hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cercle Brugge can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
An offer of $9.9M for Mees Rijks
Cercle Brugge have gone to Bristol Rovers with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Christiaan Ravych and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Florucz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Cercle Brugge asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market21 Jun 2027
Jonathan Coenen is 20, and Cercle Brugge have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Too much change too quickly at Cercle Brugge
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jong Genk can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Jong Genk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Jong Genk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Jerry Afriyie
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Victory Beniangba falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market7 Jun 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Jerry Afriyie may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Aaron Bibout 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jong Genk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market10 May 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victory Beniangba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jong Genk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
Ayumu Yokoyama and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ali Camara commits to Jong Genk for another 5 years.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Camara, and the manager let it.
Squad10 May 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Jong Genk will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jong Genk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match3 May 2027
Jong Genk are in real trouble now
Position 15, 25 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The dugout3 May 2027
Jonathan Coenen: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jong Genk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jong Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
A row about effort at Jong Genk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manu Mocsnik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 May 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
The knee: Bryan Heynen out for 25 days
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Racing Genk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Yaimar Medina is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Bryan Heynen in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Dec 2026
Westerlo made Racing Genk work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Coenen and Racing Genk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
17 appearances at Preston and the goals keep coming. Racing Genk are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
Bryan Heynen hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Genk can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Racing Genk asked and Charleroi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Dender to sit and watch. I want to come back to Racing Genk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Toby Lukaku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match12 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Racing Genk?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Charleroi? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market14 Sep 2026
The name of Tomoki Hayakawa keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Racing Genk say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Christian Akpan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Yannick Alderweireld after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Victory Beniangba's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Ali Camara
Nobody at Jong Genk is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Jong Genk had a different afternoon.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Aug 2026
Racing Genk throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with RAAL La Louviere the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Racing Genk will enjoy reviewing.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market17 Aug 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Racing Genk have paid $7.5M for Tomoki Hayakawa, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.60 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market17 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
RWDM wanted more than $1.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Junya Ito goes
Standard Liege paid $1.4M and Racing Genk took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Racing Genk spend $7.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $7.5M for Tomoki Hayakawa, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.