Marked for Simon Boyata
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mouscron lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match17 Sep 2026
2‑1 against Dynamo Kyiv, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Kevin Castagne was at the centre of the description.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A one-man rearguard from Simon Boyata
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Simon Boyata 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Mouscron
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Onana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mouscron lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Mouscron
A 0‑9 beating by Club Brugge was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market14 Sep 2026
Mouscron say no — this time
The offer from Lokeren for Romelu Courtois 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Mouscron's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mouscron has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Beaten 9 times, 5 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Standard Liege wanted more than $390.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mouscron and Club Brugge in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simon Boyata commits to Mouscron for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
$22.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad31 Aug 2026
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mouscron lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Aug 2026
Mouscron bow out of the cup
Club Brugge go through and Mouscron go home, 1‑7 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Club Brugge leaves Mouscron explaining themselves
1-7, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $22.4M sale of Eden Courtois
He is going to RC Lens, the club has $22.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mouscron can pretend not to have heard.
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
$26.8M from Ajax for Thomas Carrasco. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Kompany
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mouscron lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Eden Courtois had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Eden Courtois takes the afternoon — 9.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eden Courtois provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Mouscron, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Mouscron sell a favourite for $26.8M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Thomas Carrasco was one of the reasons people came, and $26.8M does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Mouscron offered $440.0K; Racing Genk said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Match22 Aug 2026
Eden Courtois among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Eden Courtois on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Mouscron and Racing Genk.