“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at RSCA Futures training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cedric Hatenboer 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 hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gassimou Sylla did not need any: 7.92, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mattis Seghers is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ibrahim Kanaté 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Gassimou Sylla 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at RSCA Futures training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cedric Hatenboer 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.
Minute 96, against Eupen, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at RSCA Futures can tell you which week it ends in.
At 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at RSCA Futures this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 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.
Marked 7.46 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, RSCA Futures had the best player on the pitch.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Zoumana Keita
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Zoumana Keita has come out of that comparison in the side, and RSCA Futures have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
0‑3 to RFC Liege, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Amine Mahroug is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Michiel Haentjens 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 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the RSCA Futures dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout28 Dec 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 0‑3 Axel Courtois left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for RSCA Futures
Gassimou Sylla, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 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.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. RSCA Futures know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at RSCA Futures training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Kanaté 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 easiest signature of my career.” Alexander De Ridder and RSCA Futures agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A 1‑1 draw with Waasland-Beveren leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Axel Courtois was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the RSCA Futures dressing room was either.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ibrahim Kanaté did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes RSCA Futures will be judged on one thing only.
At 18 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. RSCA Futures will try not to make too much of it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Cedric Hatenboer is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Axel Courtois on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Basile Vroninks is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ibrahim Kanaté 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Devon De Corte. 1‑0 against Jong Gent, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Thomas Foket 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Kanaté was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at RSCA Futures, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Eupen for Ali Maamar 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Amine Mahroug, 18, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where RSCA Futures would like this to lead.
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.