Marked for Jerry Afriyie
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sint-Truiden have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Jerry Afriyie at 20 — 8.00
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jerry Afriyie did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Keisuke Goto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ilias Sebaoui 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.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
At 20 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
Shogo Taniguchi 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Sint-Truiden training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryotaro Ito 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matthieu Dreyer, and the manager let it.
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Westerlo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bruno Godeau and Sint-Truiden agree another 2 years.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Axel Lukaku after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ryotaro Ito
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ryotaro Ito has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sint-Truiden have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Ilias Sebaoui gets picked when it counts
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 Ilias Sebaoui is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 52. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match28 Nov 2026
A European night to remember for Sint-Truiden
1‑0 against NEC, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Match28 Nov 2026
4‑1, and Ryotaro Ito took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sint-Truiden tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Ryotaro Ito takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ryotaro Ito provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Jerry Afriyie at 20 — 7.64
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jerry Afriyie did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match28 Nov 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ryotaro Ito 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilias Sebaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
He is 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
Thomas Vincensini damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Shogo Taniguchi 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ilias Sebaoui 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Matthieu Dreyer
“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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Racing Genk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Sint-Truiden are still strangers to each other
15 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Ujpest to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sint-Truiden and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 Nov 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 0‑1 Axel Lukaku left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match26 Aug 2026
A 5‑0 win over Lokeren, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match29 Aug 2026
Zulte Waregem will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Racing Genk were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Robin Mirisola at 19 — 10.00
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Robin Mirisola did not need any: 10.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market31 Aug 2026
Racing Genk spend $11.1M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $11.1M has been paid because Paul Philippe is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Genk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Junya Ito scores twice — 8.56
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Zenit this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
The small margins put Sint-Truiden out
Out, 2‑3 to Charleroi, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Keisuke Goto at 21 — 8.00
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Keisuke Goto did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
6 saves: Leo Kokubo was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Mouscron; Sint-Truiden go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Taiga Hata has come up in conversations Sint-Truiden were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Racing Genk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market31 Aug 2026
The shirt still fits. Bruno Godeau is back at Sint-Truiden, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ryotaro Ito and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.