Dedryck Witsel

Striker - Lokeren
28 Sep 2026
Monday
Process

Marked for Dedryck Witsel

4 Edition

The Lokeren Chronicle

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

A 3-goal lead gone for Lokeren

It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Zulte Waregem kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Lokeren will be asked about the last half hour all week.

Player ratings

Both of them Michy Lukaku's — 9.70

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Club Brugge come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Lokeren did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

A day Simon Januzaj will not forget

3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.

Market

Dedryck Witsel asks to leave Lokeren

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Lokeren

Michy Lukaku 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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Simon Januzaj

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.63, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Onana 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.

Squad

No hiding place for Michaël Heylen

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michaël Heylen, and the manager let it.

In brief

Back issues
1 Edition

The Lokeren Chronicle

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Lokeren turn down Ajax for Radja De Ketelaere

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Radja De Ketelaere raises the bar for Lokeren

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Lokeren heard it as anything else.

Squad

Tempers go at Lokeren

Michy Lukaku 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.

Squad

Words at Lokeren training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Onana 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.

Squad

No hiding place for Thomas Mignolet

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Mignolet, and the manager let it.

Market

Eyes on Dedryck Witsel again

The phone has started ringing about Dedryck Witsel again, and this time the name on the line is Heracles. Lokeren are listening politely and promising nothing.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Simon Januzaj at his very best

Marked 8.48. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lokeren.

Player ratings

Michy Lukaku was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Match

Simon Januzaj rescues a point for Lokeren

It needed Simon Januzaj to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against KV Oostende, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

In brief