He is 19, he is averaging 7.25, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Brent Gabriel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrique Lofolomo 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andres Labie and Zulte Waregem agree another 4 years.
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 Mateus Mané is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakob Kiilerich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Zulte Waregem will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zulte Waregem, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Salim Diakité 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.
Zulte Waregem asked and Grimsby Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 19 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.
Three points for Zulte Waregem, 1‑0 the final word against Sint-Truiden in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrique Lofolomo 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 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mateus Mané did not need any: 8.34, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Charleroi for Anosike Ementa 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Standard Liege keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Brent Gabriel 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Youri Mignolet is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A 1‑0 win over Waasland-Beveren, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulte Waregem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilguens Paugain was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 5, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Youri Mignolet and Zulte Waregem agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Laurent De Bruyne after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anosike Ementa provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Enrique Lofolomo and Zulte Waregem agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Thomas Claes 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.
Three points for Zulte Waregem, 2‑0 the final word against Sint-Truiden in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Zulte Waregem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrique Lofolomo 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 bid was some way short and KV Oostende did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dries Lukaku 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.
KV Oostende asked and Paris Saint-Germain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.63 — 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.
Minute 95, against Westerlo, 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.