From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Brecht Dejaegere
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Kortrijk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A season average of 7.62 with 26 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match6 Feb 2027
KV Kortrijk throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with KAA Gent the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that KV Kortrijk will enjoy reviewing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Maecky Ngombo breaks a bone — 14 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Shandre Campbell to Anderlecht has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to KV Kortrijk with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Gustaf Nilsson 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 ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 8.56 — 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Gustaf Nilsson at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KV Kortrijk.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
Brecht Dejaegere damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
25 goals and a season average of 7.59. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad1 Feb 2027
22 days out for Maecky Ngombo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
KV Kortrijk close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: KV Mechelen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Ken Masui beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market1 Feb 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. KV Mechelen moved on, Ebbe De Vlaeminck reports back to KV Kortrijk, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market1 Feb 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Kortrijk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Marko Ilić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Brecht Dejaegere
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Kortrijk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
11 saves: Marko Ilić was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad25 Jan 2027
29 days out for Maecky Ngombo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Gustaf Nilsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Jan 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between KV Kortrijk and Anderlecht, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match23 Jan 2027
Anderlecht left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Philips, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Kortrijk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.59 with 24 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match18 Jan 2027
56 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match16 Jan 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. KV Kortrijk scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market18 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KV Kortrijk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad18 Jan 2027
38 days out for Maecky Ngombo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Marko Ilić 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 ratings18 Jan 2027
Ken Masui beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Kortrijk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.56 with 23 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad11 Jan 2027
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.93, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad11 Jan 2027
46 days out for Maecky Ngombo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match9 Jan 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between KV Kortrijk and Sint-Truiden, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Nobody could get near Ken Masui
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marko Ilić, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 45. 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
81 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Kortrijk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Maecky Ngombo breaks a bone — 53 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and KV Kortrijk have had the benefit of it.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Fuhna Wirsiy Nsolo has agreed terms with Waasland-Beveren for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market4 Jan 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KV Kortrijk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Getting past Marko Ilić has become the hardest job in the division
14 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Match2 Jan 2027
Three points for KV Kortrijk, 2‑0 the final word against Westerlo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market4 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. KV Kortrijk will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KV Kortrijk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Maecky Ngombo out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Marko Ilić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goduine Koyalipou 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Gustaf Nilsson
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match26 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Waasland-Beveren, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Eden De Ketelaere to a room that had heard them before.
Market28 Dec 2026
No place for Yohan Mollo in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yohan Mollo has his answer from KV Kortrijk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brecht Dejaegere damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
9 saves: Marko Ilić was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match21 Dec 2026
50 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad21 Dec 2026
70 days out for Maecky Ngombo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.53 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Thierry Ambrose scored one and made one — 7.95
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.95, and 2 involvements.
Match19 Dec 2026
Club Brugge left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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The dugout
Sixtus Ogbuehi gets it from the manager
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The dugout
Boris Lambert is still being punished for one mistake
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Brecht Dejaegere
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KV Kortrijk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Dec 2026
KV Kortrijk do the business in Europe
1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and KV Kortrijk came through the finding-out well against Korona.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Maecky Ngombo breaks a bone — 78 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Goduine Koyalipou
20 goals and a season average of 7.51 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Amine Boukamir: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Kortrijk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Shandre Campbell, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brecht Dejaegere damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
4‑0, and Goduine Koyalipou took the headlines on an afternoon when everything KV Kortrijk tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Maecky Ngombo out for 86 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Dec 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.46 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 9.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ken Masui beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
13 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match28 Nov 2026
A chastening European night for KV Kortrijk
0‑3 against PSV. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match25 Nov 2026
Charleroi ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Maecky Ngombo out for 93 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marko Ilić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustaf Nilsson. 1‑0 against Racing Genk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
102 days out for Maecky Ngombo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match23 Nov 2026
The view from the top for KV Kortrijk
41 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Goduine Koyalipou
15 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marko Ilić 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Ken Masui beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Lokeren made KV Kortrijk work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.62 — 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.59 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Maecky Ngombo out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KV Kortrijk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marko Ilić 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thierry Ambrose. 1‑0 against OH Leuven, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marko Ilić shuts the door again
10 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Eden De Ketelaere on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Yoric Ravet
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
KV Kortrijk do the business in Europe
2‑2. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and KV Kortrijk came through the finding-out well against HNK Rijeka.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
119 days out for Maecky Ngombo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KV Kortrijk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Marko Ilić
There were 8 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Goduine Koyalipou
14 goals and a season average of 7.38 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Marko Ilić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Goduine Koyalipou. 2‑0 against Zulte Waregem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.60 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.62, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Gustaf Nilsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.34 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
6 matches without defeat, and then Mouscron. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
$10.2M on the table at KV Kortrijk
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Eden De Ketelaere to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 Oct 2026
A European night to remember for KV Kortrijk
1‑0 against HNK Rijeka, 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.
Match26 Oct 2026
First, on 32 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play KV Kortrijk right now
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Marko Ilić 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Goduine Koyalipou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Goduine Koyalipou
11 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match24 Oct 2026
KAA Gent made KV Kortrijk work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Goduine Koyalipou, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match17 Oct 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now KV Kortrijk have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gustaf Nilsson 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between KV Kortrijk and KV Oostende, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Goduine Koyalipou. 4‑2 against KV Oostende, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.61 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for KV Kortrijk. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.53, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Sixtus Ogbuehi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KV Kortrijk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play KV Kortrijk right now
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marko Ilić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match10 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KV Kortrijk and Anderlecht in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match10 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thierry Ambrose. 4‑2 against Anderlecht, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Marko Ilić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.66 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.90, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marko Ilić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thierry Ambrose. 4‑3 against Charleroi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match3 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between KV Kortrijk and Charleroi, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Goduine Koyalipou 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.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.60, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Sep 2026
20 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad28 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marko Ilić 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at KV Kortrijk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
The big one: Charleroi come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. KV Kortrijk will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Babacar Djitté Cissé, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Sixtus Ogbuehi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match26 Sep 2026
A goal on 91 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2026
A European night to forget for KV Kortrijk
1‑5. PSV play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Sep 2026
The offer from Zlate Moravce for Tristen Alliet 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Marko Ilić 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Gustaf Nilsson among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Gustaf Nilsson on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of KV Kortrijk and PSV.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Goduine Koyalipou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and KV Kortrijk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Gustaf Nilsson
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match19 Sep 2026
Westerlo left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Thierry Ambrose took the headlines on an afternoon when everything KV Kortrijk tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match12 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Standard Liege wanted more than $2.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Goduine Koyalipou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rudy Kohon and KV Kortrijk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
KV Kortrijk asked and KV Mechelen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Sep 2026
KV Kortrijk are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad7 Sep 2026
A one-man rearguard from Marko Ilić
There were 9 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Goduine Koyalipou took the headlines on an afternoon when everything KV Kortrijk tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market7 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KV Kortrijk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ken Masui beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The offer went to Standard Liege 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now KV Kortrijk have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at KV Kortrijk 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and KV Kortrijk did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over KV Oostende, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match29 Aug 2026
4‑0, and Goduine Koyalipou took the headlines on an afternoon when everything KV Kortrijk tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match26 Aug 2026
KV Kortrijk win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 110th minute. KV Oostende will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Goduine Koyalipou takes the afternoon — 8.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Goduine Koyalipou provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Abdoul Diop, 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.
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now KV Kortrijk have 3 straight wins of it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Lenn De Smet beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Standard Liege wanted more than $780.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Abdoul Diop has come up in conversations KV Kortrijk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gustaf Nilsson 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
KV Kortrijk asked and Ajax Cape 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Goduine Koyalipou’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to KV Kortrijk.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KV Kortrijk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$670.0K settles it between the clubs for Amine Boukamir
Charleroi have accepted the money. What KV Kortrijk do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market17 Aug 2026
Club Brugge did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.5M for Gustaf Nilsson, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
KV Kortrijk have gone to KV Mechelen 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
KV Kortrijk offered $770.0K; KAA Gent 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
KV Kortrijk have gone to Standard 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marko Ilić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Club Brugge; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jellert Van Landschoot provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Shandre Campbell, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.41
A mark of 8.41 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
KV Kortrijk have gone to KAA Gent 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marko Ilić and KV Kortrijk agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Marko Ilić 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from FC Lorient for Thierry Ambrose 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thierry Ambrose and KV Kortrijk agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Marko Ilić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KV Kortrijk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Goduine Koyalipou 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Three points for KV Kortrijk, 2‑0 the final word against OH Leuven in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Tristen Alliet again, and this time the name on the line is Zadar. KV Kortrijk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
9 combined actions and 7.29. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.