If the traditional winter sales have already started in France, for six weeks, our Belgian neighbor is also experiencing the big liquidation in these cold days. Since the opening of its market on January 5, the flat country has seen many of its nuggets flee, and obviously, this should continue until its closing on February 1. A hotbed of talent where the European TOP 5 clubs have gotten into the habit of shopping, Belgium has already exported more than 38 million euros this winter. For comparison, this is 10 more than the French clubs, 30 more than the Germans and 28 more than the La Liga clubs, who have also recorded only one transfer over this period: that of Mohamed- Ali Cho from Real Sociedad to Nice for 10 million euros. Figures to highlight – the Jupiler being akin to a so-called “springboard” championship – but which still testify to the appeal that the championship continues to arouse abroad. Today, European leaders no longer hesitate to bet on potential, and it is naturally towards Belgium that they are turning.
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A year ago, Borussia Dortmund had spent 8.5 million euros for Julien Duranville, 16 years old and 11 professional matches, while Rennes, in the summer of 2020, had spent more than 20 to poach a another phenomenon from Anderlecht: Jérémy Doku, aged 18 at the time. For Jason Boks, an agent specially established on the Belgian market, there is nothing outrageous in this practice: “in France, and this is logical given the population, we have more raw talent than in Belgium. On the other hand, here (in Belgium), we have trainers capable of maximizing the qualities of young people, pushing them to diversify their game, and making them players ready for the high level very earlydecides the agent. There was the generation of Fellaini, Benteke, Lukaku, but the new one embodied by Doku confirms this trend. Today, clubs are looking for players who are already competing in the European Cup at 17 or 18 years old, and who play in an athletic championship quite similar to what we find in the major championships..»
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La Gantoise, winter host
Third in the Belgian championship this season, La Gantoise has already paid the price for this big sell-off. In the space of five days, the Flemish club saw two of the highest market values in its squad fly to the skies of Lyon: Malick Fofana (18 years old) and Gift Orban (21 years old). The first, a pure local product, was sold for 17 million euros while the second, which arrived for just under 5 million euros from Norway a year ago, went for three times more. For Boks, OL achieved two great deals with these two arrivals: “It’s no secret, today you also pay for the potential and brand image of a player. But I think that OL made two very good deals with Fofana and Orban, evades the agent who manages the interests of several Jupiler Pro League and Eredivisie players. They performed in Belgium, a championship focused on the physical aspect and quite similar to Ligue 1 on certain points, then they also shone on the European scene, in C3 and C4. These are players who are already ready, and who also speak the language. It’s always simpler than going to get a player in Brazil who presents several unknowns.”
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Today, Ligue 1 clubs do not intend to break the link with Belgium, a relatively buoyant economic market. To quote La Gantoise again, the club is today akin to a real partner of the French championship, as evidenced by the transfers of Jonathan David to Lille for 27 million euros in 2020, or of Joseph Okumu, transferred to last summer in Reims for 10 million euros. Bruges, for its part, for example sold Krépin Diatta to Monaco for 17 million euros in 2020, Loïs Openda to Lens for a little more than 15 in 2022 or even Abakar Sylla to Strasbourg this summer for 20 million. This winter, his Canadian international Tajon Buchanan also changed direction by joining the finalist of the last Champions League, Inter Milan, proof of the growing credibility of the championship. And as it is enough to shake a tree for talents to appear in Bruges, the new attraction should now be called Antonio Nusa. The young 18-year-old Norwegian winger, already tracked by Chelsea and Tottenham, is expected to dethrone Charles De Ketelaere in the ranking of the biggest sale of a Belgian club (the Belgian was sold for 32 million euros to AC Milan in 2022).
The work of Belgian recruiters and trainers highlighted
With the madness that revolves around the gems of the Belgian championship, it is also the trainers and recruiters who see their work being highlighted. As reported by the CIES Football Observatory at the end of 2023, Anderlecht, for example, occupies 25th place in the ranking of the most profitable training centers on the planet. Between 2014 and 2023, the RSC invoiced players trained at the club for 179 million euros. In the ranking of the best CIES training centers, based on the rate of players trained at the club and having played with the professional team, three clubs from the flat country also appear in the TOP 100: Anderlecht, 38th with 50 players trained, the Standard, 57th, just behind Bayern Munich with 44 players from the Academy, and finally Genk, 97th with 32 players. In other proportions, other “new” emerge and manage to show themselves more and more attractive, like Antwerp or the Union Saint-Gilloise.
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«Things are progressing more and more in Belgium. Antwerp is putting more and more money into training, we see this with the development of talents like Arthur Vermeerenjudge Sacha Tavolieri, journalist and specialist in Belgian football. The idea is clearly to get closer to the model in France. Moreover, the regulations oblige clubs to provide at least 6 players trained in Belgium on the match sheet, which actually pushes clubs to place emphasis on training. Besides, every season, we see Belgian clubs go far in the Youth League.” To emphasize training, the Pro League general assembly also approved the addition of four U23 teams to the D1B a little over a year ago.
It’s also a way for clubs to prepare their young fingers for the intensity and demands of the high level. In this sense, the reserves of Anderlecht, Genk, Standard and Club Bruges are playing today in the antechamber of the Jupiler Pro League, and at the professional level. For Sacha Tavolieri, this measure tends to accelerate the process of integration of young people: “for players who stand out from the crowd in the U23s, there can quickly be prospects in group A. The young people are already facing very tough teams, and that conditions them for the high level. The jump is much less steep afterwards.” A showcase also, which allowed Sekou Diawara (19 years old, Udinese), Mika Godts (18 years old, Ajax) and Arne Engels (20 years old, Augsburg), to obtain opportunities abroad and discover the very high level there. Belgium continues to attract attention.
Pub. 01/23/2024 9:03 p.m. Updated 01/23/2024 9:33 p.m.
2024-01-23 20:03:45
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