Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Charleroi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The fee is $4.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Hapoel Kfar Saba drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Gilbert Bandama, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gilbert Bandama has just signed for Charleroi, and for once the answer mattered.
Yacine Titraoui 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 words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Charleroi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Yacine Titraoui 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nicolas Glaus has just signed for Charleroi, and for once the answer mattered.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jakob Napoleon Romsaas 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.
Marked 8.61 — 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.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Charleroi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Racing Genk for Yassine Khalifi 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.
Rui Patrício 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Charleroi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Waasland-Beveren paid $220.0K and Charleroi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Parfait Guiagon 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.
9.01. 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aurélien Scheidler. 2‑1 against Mouscron, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthieu Dreyer 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 Charleroi 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.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aurélien Scheidler provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jakob Napoleon Romsaas 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthieu Dreyer 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.
Position 2, 30 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.
Rui Patrício 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.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aiham Ousou. 2‑1 against Lokeren, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.38 — 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthieu Dreyer 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.
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Rui Patrício's mistake
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and Charleroi are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Charleroi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rui Patrício 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.
There were 11 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
Yassine Khalifi, 21, 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 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Charleroi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jakob Napoleon Romsaas 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.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Charleroi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthieu Dreyer 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.