1‑0 against AEK, 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Antwerp can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Moustapha Mbow has just signed for Antwerp, and for once the answer mattered.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Antwerp hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Hugo Vetlesen 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mory Gbané 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Antwerp, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Antwerp hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Vetlesen 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Antwerp will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Antwerp they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Antwerp can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp 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 Patrik Gunnarsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑2 away to the standard of Partizan. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Glenn Bijl will call it something else in private.
0‑1 against LOSC Lille, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
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.
Zinho Vanheusden 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daam Foulon commits to Antwerp for another 4 years.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Vetlesen 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.
Antwerp ran out of time with Club Brugge. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Thibo Somers
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Junya Ito
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Patrik Gunnarsson had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Westerlo have kept their man, and Antwerp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Antwerp have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Antwerp ran out of time with Westerlo. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Hugo Vetlesen 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.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Antwerp is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and Antwerp are still learning each other
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Taishi Brandon Nozawa: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Seraing go through and Antwerp go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
$17.1M on the table at Pescara. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Antwerp asked and Middlesbrough said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Francs Borains for Patrik Gunnarsson 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Spartak 1918 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Antwerp is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The chase for Mohamed Koné ended with $2.2M changing hands and KAA Gent out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Antwerp can pretend not to have heard.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Antwerp are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The chase for Hugo Vetlesen ended with $7.3M changing hands and Club Brugge out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Antwerp offered $38.0K; Club Brugge 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.
Hugo Vetlesen was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $7.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alhassan Yusuf 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RAAL La Louviere have kept their man, and Antwerp go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Antwerp has been clear about where Geoffry Hairemans stands, which is more than many ever get.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
$7.3M settles it between the clubs for Hugo Vetlesen
Club Brugge have accepted the money. What Antwerp do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
62 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Antwerp asked and OH Leuven said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The chase for Severin Nioule ended with $2.4M changing hands and Charleroi out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Gunnarsson 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antwerp this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Antwerp, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Antwerp has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Antwerp asked and Utrecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.0M on the table at Seraing. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Obinna Nwobodo 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.
At 18 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.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Antwerp training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kiki Kouyaté 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.
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 Anthony Valencia is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Genk can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Genk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Daan Heymans 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.
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 Daan Heymans is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing Genk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jordy Soladio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Everything was agreed with Club Brugge and then the doctor spoke. Antwerp have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lierse waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Antwerp is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Antwerp asked and Club Brugge said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have shaken hands with Racing Genk; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The chase for Raphaël Sarfo ended with $2.3M changing hands and Patro Eisden out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Massimo Bruno has, at Antwerp, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Antwerp will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Antwerp offered $38.0K; Club Brugge 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lommel; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Genk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Genk can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Yaimar Medina has come up in conversations Racing Genk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.8M — a club that wants Jason van Duiven enough to be asked twice.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Racing Genk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Kjell Scherpen 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.
Position 3, 59 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer went to Francs Borains 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.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Racing Genk know it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Racing Genk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Genk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Kjell Scherpen 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Racing Genk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Peano 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.
Nobody at Racing Genk 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.
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.
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.
Bryan Heynen 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Genk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Racing Genk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Peano 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.
10 clean sheets from 19 appearances at Telstar. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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 Daan Heymans is on 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 Racing Genk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
12 seasons and 323 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has 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 Racing Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Genk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He is 23 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.
In brief
Player ratingsJeppe Erenbjerg was on a different afternoon to everybody else
12 seasons and 322 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Racing Genk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Sint-Truiden; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Racing Genk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Lukáš Červ 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Racing Genk will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“74 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 34 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Racing Genk.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Genk can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The offer from Urawa Reds for Junya Ito 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.
Racing Genk asked and Lommel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Genk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jeppe Erenbjerg and Racing Genk agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bragantino keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Racing Genk asked and Besiktas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Genk can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Romeo Vermant ended with $8.5M changing hands and Club Brugge out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The bid was some way short and Racing Genk did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Racing Genk close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stef Peeters has just signed for Racing Genk, and for once the answer mattered.
1‑1 against OGC Nice, 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Racing Genk know it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Racing Genk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Peano 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
At 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rafiu Durosinmi. 2‑0 against Anderlecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Shota Fukuoka 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marcos Peano 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.
He is 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rafiu Durosinmi. 2‑0 against Antwerp, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Antwerp tried to reorganise, Racing Genk did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
5 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.
Lukáš Červ 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
Words at Racing Genk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Peano 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amir Hossein Hosseinzadeh. 2‑1 against Union SG, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
At 22 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Genk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rafiu Durosinmi signs something — a contract at Racing Genk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Loan watchLucca Brughmans’s loan is measured in nothing happening
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Racing Genk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑2 against CSKA Sofia, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
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.” Lennart Mertens and Racing Genk agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Racing Genk, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hendrik Van Crombrugge has his answer from Racing Genk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jeppe Erenbjerg provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Racing Genk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcos Peano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
1‑0 against OGC Nice, 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.
Bryan Heynen 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. Robin Mirisola is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Marcos Peano 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Tobias Lawal will call it something else in private.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Racing Genk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Genk can pretend not to have heard.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
At 23 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Genk can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Racing Genk until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Genk heard it as anything else.
Lukáš Červ 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcos Peano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Robin Mirisola has come up in conversations Racing Genk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Racing Genk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Racing Genk have gone to RFC Liege with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The deal with Waasland-Beveren is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
$880.0K was the most the club would pay and Patro Eisden were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Bryan Heynen 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Junya Ito
The offer went to RAAL La Louviere 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.
The offer went to RWDM 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.
The offer from KV Mechelen for Adrián Palacios 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.
Racing Genk have gone to Patro Eisden with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $940.0K — a club that wants Kéres Masangu enough to be asked twice.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Racing Genk know it.
The name of Robin Mirisola has come up in conversations Racing Genk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Kevin Amaro 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafiu Durosinmi provided it, and the 7.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
12 seasons and 297 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Genk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Genk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hendrik Van Crombrugge and Racing Genk agree another 2 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. Kevin Amaro 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: Rafiu Durosinmi. 2‑0 against KV Mechelen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.