The empty Stade Joseph Marien looks like a fairytale football castle when you approach it from the adjacent Duden Park. Through the bushes and trees you can see the red-brick club building that supports the grandstand with the blue roof. You can see flashes of yellow and blue seat shells embedded in earthen walls. And right in the middle the lush green. There must be a princess waiting to be kissed awake, you might think at first glance. Alone, the princess has already been kissed awake – even by two men, an English poker player named Tony Bloom and the German-Turkish striker Deniz Undav, who nobody in the Bundesliga wanted.
The Royale Union Saint-Gilloise as leaders of the Belgian league: a matter of opinion whether you think that’s a fairy tale or just an example of how international investors rule the football world. In any case, the club, based in the Brussels municipality of Saint-Gilles, is writing one of the most amazing stories in European club football. He was a series champion in the 1930s, then disappeared into obscurity, only rising back to the first division in the summer of 2021. Now the hearts are flying to the club, and scouts from the big leagues in Europe are looking for reinforcements in the listed Stade Joseph Marien.
Promoted Union leads the table by a large margin, but the championship is far away
This Sunday the team celebrated their biggest win, 1-0 in the Brussels derby against RSC Anderlecht. The 5000 fans in the Stade Joseph Marien, which was only half full because of Corona, went crazy. To top it off, only one goal was missing from Deniz Undav, 25, who two years ago played for the third division team SV Meppen and became a hero in Brussels. He is the only player to be seen on the stadium wall as an advertising medium for the club. Against Anderlecht he used all his strength to defend the early lead together with his teammates through a free-kick from Denmark’s Casper Nielsen. There is no team in the league that runs more than Saint-Gilles.
The team leads the table with a large lead over defending champions FC Brugge, Anderlecht is 15 points behind. The two communities in the capital are in the immediate vicinity, but football-wise they were galaxies until recently. Anderlecht, coached by Belgian idol Vincent Kompany, has had a sporting and financial crisis in recent years, but the team with their 34 championship titles is still considered the FC Bayern of Belgian football. And now Saint-Gilles, comparatively not even 1860 Munich, has passed.
This would not be possible without the money from investor Tony Bloom, 51. He made money as a professional gambler, was mathematically gifted and so cold-blooded that rivals gave him the name “Lizard”, the lizard. That’s why he called it “Starlizard” when he founded a company that advises sports bettors. With the money he made he helped his hometown club Brighton & Hove to the Premier League. But because he wants to win a championship and sees no chance in England, he looked for another investment. He found it in Saint-Gilles in 2018. Brussels is easy to reach from London, Saint-Gilles has a long tradition and loyal fans. And the Belgian league is more open to investors than the German league.
No longer needed at third division club Meppen, has become a hero in Brussels: striker Deniz Unav, left against Anderlecht’s Sergio Gomez Martin, has already scored 18 goals for the Union Royale this season.
(Foto: Philippe Crochet/Panoramic/image)
Deniz Undav, born 25 years ago in Achim near Bremen, found his way to Saint-Gilles from the “Starlizard” database. Bloom’s company not only collects statistics on all players in the European leagues, but also all available information beyond that. And so the picture of an intelligent, technically adept striker with a common sense emerged. When he was young at Werder Bremen, he was found to be too small at 1.79 meters, and he was unable to assert himself at second division side Eintracht Braunschweig. He contributed to Saint-Gille’s rise with 17 goals, having struck 18 in the first so far. All roads seem to be open to him now.
Schalke, Cologne, Wolfsburg, Gladbach? All sorts of clubs have been linked to Undav after it was announced last week that he was leaving Belgium. He’s a type of player like Karim Benzema, Real Madrid’s French striker, Undav says of himself, which shows self-confidence. Belgian commentators advised him not to move to the Premier League, where he will perish. But that’s exactly what seems to be confirmed now: Allegedly, Deniz Undav will stay with Tony Bloom’s empire and move to Brighton & Hove.
Officially, Saint-Gilles has the third smallest budget in the league, unofficially a lot of money flows
He wants to finish the fairy tale in Brussels, says Undav, so he won’t change until the summer. Despite being at the top of the table, the championship title is still a long way off, because it will ultimately be awarded in a complicated playoff system. Regardless, investor Bloom and his business partner Alex Muzio, who serves as president, want to continue modernizing the club.
Officially, Saint-Gilles has the third-smallest budget in the league, but a lot of money flows beyond transfers and salaries. A training ground has been built outside of Brussels, and in two years a new stadium is to be built that will hold more than just 10,000 spectators. And the algorithms of “Starlizard” will search for a new undav all over Europe. The predecessor of incumbent coach Felice Mazzu had insisted on forming a team of Belgian talents. The next day he was released.
So much cold efficiency might seem intimidating. In Belgium, however, where hardly any club can compete without a major investor, it is perceived as refreshing. The league is in shock from the 2018 scandal, and more than 50 people involved are said to be on trial. It’s about match fixing, money laundering, corruption. Former RSC Anderlecht personnel are also involved in the affair. Apparently, Belgian billionaire Marc Coucke (Omega Pharma) was ripped off when he bought the ailing club in 2017. With so much bad news, sometimes you want to believe in fairy tales.
