At the age of 13, Ilyes Bennane became the youngest ever youth international for Belgium. The left winger is known as one of the country’s greatest talents and until recently played for Genk’s youth team. But he left after disagreements between the board and entourage.
At the end of February, his parents informed Genk that he was leaving the club LDH. However, Genk claims that the decision was made by the club first.
“It is a choice we have made to protect our values,” says Koen Daerden, technical director of the academy, at The last hour.
“We put a lot of energy into the development and guidance of Ilyes. He is a boy with exceptional qualities, but it no longer worked. His family has their own ideas and it was better to part ways.”
Not physically ready yet
So what were those ideas? Well, Bennane’s family felt that he is not yet physically developed enough to play in the U15s.
“Ilyes is very talented, but he has the body of a child his age,” father Samir explains. “When he joined Genk at the age of 9, his early promotion was not a problem. But now, playing with the U15s, he started meeting boys who were very powerful, sometimes as adults.”
Anderlecht of Club
“It became dangerous for Ilyes’ health and I asked Genk to transfer him back from the 2009 generation to the 2010 generation. But the club did not want that, because his 2010 generation is not performing well enough compared to the talent of Ilyes.”
The clubs are already lining up to bring in the talent. It will probably be Anderlecht or Club Brugge. That decision won’t be long in coming.
2024-03-19 11:20:00
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