Latest news with #RoyaleUnionSaint-Gilloise
Toronto Sun
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
Canadian Promise David leads Union to first Belgian league title in 90 years
Published May 26, 2025 • 1 minute read Union's Canadian forward #12 Promise David holds the trophy as he celebrates with teammates and supporters their Belgian championship title after winning the Belgian Pro League champions' play-off football match (day 10 of 10) between Royale Union Saint-Gilloise and KAA Gent, at the Joseph Marien Stadium in Brussels, on May 25, 2025. Photo by SIMON WOLFHART/STR / AFP Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. BRUSSELS — Union Saint-Gilloise sealed its first Belgian league title in 90 years with a 3-1 win over Genk on Sunday. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Promise David, of Brampton, Ont., scored twice and Franjo Ivanovic added another goal to help the small Brussels club secure its first league title since 1935. Union entered the final round of the championship playoffs with a one-point lead and after near misses in the past three seasons. In 2022 and in 2024 Union led the regular season standings then faded in the playoffs to let Club Brugge take the title. The epic 2023 title race had a dramatic ending when a helicopter carrying league officials and the trophy had to turn away from Union's tiny Joseph Marien Stadium. Only Union and Brugge were in title contention on Sunday. Brugge drew 1-1 with Antwerp to finish in second place, three points behind. Union had a slow start to the season under new coach Pocognoli, after more sales of star players for eight-figure fees. Led by goals from David, Union moved up to third in the regular season standings. This time, Genk was the leader that collapsed in the playoffs. Union surged with a run of five clean sheets, including a 1-0 win at Brugge on April 24, to go top for the first time. Ontario Football Music Money News Toronto & GTA
New York Times
02-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How Royale Union Saint-Gilloise perfected the role of ‘a selling club' – and may win a title with it
Last weekend, Belgium's Pro League split and its six-team championship series began. Among those clubs are Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (RUSG) who, since being promoted back to Belgium's top-flight in 2021, have defied budgetary disadvantages, as well as player and coaching turnover, to consistently challenge at the top of the table. Advertisement RUSG are from Brussels and are 11-time national champions. That's faded glory, though. The last of those titles was won in 1935 and until promotion four years ago, they had not played in Belgium's top flight since 1973. But they began the new phase of the season with a show of power, thumping Royal Antwerp — who were playing in the Champions League last season — 5-1 at the 9,400-capacity Joseph Marien Stadium on Saturday. Their story is becoming well known. So much so that RUSG are now a shorthand for quality, data-led recruitment and confounding over-performance. In that first 2021-22 season back in the Pro League, they began the year with the joint-lowest wage spend in the division and as a 500-1 outsider. They did not become Belgian champions that year, but they did finish the 30-game regular season in first place (the champions are decided by the six-team play-off series). It was remarkable but no anomaly. They finished second the next year and first again the year after, both times despite the eighth-highest wage spend. They also reached the quarter-final of the Europa League and the last 16 of the Conference League in successive years and, in 2024, won the Belgian Cup and Belgian Super Cup. The results have been startling and that over-performance is described by the many players who have been part of it — who typically arrived unknown and undervalued, and departed for big sums that kept the virtuous cycle spinning forward. Deniz Undav, who joined on a free transfer from the German third division, was sold to Brighton for €7million (£5.8m; $7.6m) and is today a German international playing for Stuttgart. Dante Vanzeir was playing for Genk's C team in 2020 when he was signed for €300,000, but left three years later for the New York Red Bulls for €5m. Or there's Cameron Puertas, signed for €1.5m (Lausanne-Sport, 2022), sold for €15m (Al Qadsiah, 2024). On and on. Players leave, but without leaving gaps behind. When Victor Boniface was sold to Bayer Leverkusen €20m in 2023, he was replaced by Mohamed Amoura, who left for Wolfsburg a year later (an initial loan that will be made permanent for €17.5m). This season, more stars are rising. Against Antwerp, Franjo Ivanovic scored twice — he cost €4m last summer from Rijeka and has just won his first caps for Croatia. Giant Canadian forward Promise David (6ft 5in/196cm) got his 11th goal of the season, too, and recently represented his country for the first time, having moved to Belgium from the Estonian Premier Division last summer for €400,000. Advertisement In midfield, Noah Sadiki (€1.4m from Anderlecht, 2023) is likely to command an eight-figure transfer fee when he leaves RUSG. Ousseynou Niang, a thrusting, 23-year-old winger from Senegal, should be worth much more than the €1.5m that brought him to Brussels from Latvian club Riga. But quality talent identification is not solely what allows RUSG to be successful. There is also stability despite the flux — being able to counterbalance the volatile nature of selling-club life. Alex Muzio is RUSG's president and owner. In 2018, he and Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom bought the club together. Bloom set up StarLizard, the gambling consultancy firm through which Muzio had risen. For the first five years, Muzio held a 10 per cent stake and controlled the board voting rights. In July 2023, to comply with UEFA Competition Regulations around multi-club ownership, he remortgaged his house to acquire 75 per cent of the club and reduce Bloom's holding to a minority stake. RUSG became very much Muzio's club. 'We've tried to generally keep it relatively simple,' Muzio tells The Athletic. 'We don't just sign loads of young players from around world, all of whom speak different languages, and then just chuck them together and hope that it will work out. 'In our squad, we try to mix the personalities. We also try to mix the people who are expecting to start with those who don't and mix leaders with non-leaders. Because if you sign 20 players and they all expect to start, that's not going to work. It just leads to having very unhappy people all the time and a manager who feels he has to rotate constantly just to keep the squad together. 'At the same time, of course you don't want to have only 11 starters and then 11 backups, either, because then you have two groups: stars here, back-ups over there. Advertisement 'I don't know if you ever played Football Manager, but the way that they started to do their squad dynamics was really smart. You have a few indispensable players, then a couple that are very likely to start, a few that that are quite likely to, then some who feel they can make an impact from the bench and so on. 'It can't be too binary; there has to be a blend. We try to find the most talented players we can, but with those constraints in place.' Selling matters, too. RUSG's role in the sport — existing in the gap between feeder leagues and the elite divisions — is lucrative but crowded. Identifying the right players is one challenge. Convincing them that the club is right for them — that opportunity exists to improve, that the club will not stand in the way of future opportunities — is another. The ideal selling point for a player is, Muzio says, 'the million-dollar question'. 'It's so hard, but generally it's about interest. The reality is that if you play for us and you're earning X, then when it comes to the right time to sell for us, it's when the player is offered three and a half times X or more. 'We're not here to block players. If you become a club that's blocking players, then players stop wanting to come. It's also bad for the spirit in the dressing room. But it's just a moral thing. Players' careers are very short. And if you block a guy from leaving when he's been offered four times a salary and then he breaks his leg, then that's life-changing and you just don't want that on your conscience. I don't want it anyway.' But there's a compromise to be found between making sure that the player is treated fairly — allowing the RUSG's reputation for advancing careers to be signposted — and ensuring that the team is not disadvantaged. 'It can't be that the player is going to earn X from the move, but that the club is only going to earn one-fifth of X from the transfer fee. Advertisement 'That's not fair either, because we've obviously taken risks and we invest in all of the players that come here — with coaching, with physios, with operations, with facilities — and we would have a significant operational loss on an annual basis without transfers and without Europe competition.' Having control over the terms of how a player leaves the club is one of the reasons why Muzio dislikes release clauses. Many clubs in USG's position employ them. Some believe they create more certainty over a player's value and, theoretically, help with future budgeting. Muzio does not agree. In fact, only once since he became president has he allowed a player to have one in his contract — and that was for Undav, who had been unwilling to join (what was then) a second division club without one. 'They cap the ceiling of what we can achieve. When we signed (Maltese midfielder) Teddy Teuma from Red Star (in 2019), if his representatives had said that they wanted a release clause of €3m, that would have been 10 times what we were paying (€300,000). But we ended up selling him for over €5m (to Reims). 'When we signed Dante Vanzeir for €300,000, if we'd put in a release clause of three million, which again is more than 10 times, we would have lost out significantly there, given that we sold him for quite a bit more.' Logistically, they are also a challenge. Particularly for a club that wants agency over when players are sold and under what conditions. 'If we're ever going to do one again, we will make sure that it's only applicable early in the window. It really isn't good for a squad to have some guy who's got a release clause hanging around, with the chance that someone might trigger it, but you're not sure when. Then, on the last day of the window, with two hours to go, they trigger it and you're left with a big hole.' Advertisement If the way players come in and out of the club is decisive, then so too is how coaches arrive and depart. This is RUSG's fourth season in the Pro League and Sebastien Pocognoli, who is currently in charge, is the club's fourth manager in four years. They won promotion under Felice Mazzu, who left in 2022. Karel Geraerts was appointed to succeed him, before Alexander Blessin replaced him a year later. Blessin left for the Bundesliga's St Pauli in the summer of 2024, replacing Fabian Hurzeler, who had joined Brighton. Superficially, the lack of continuity seems like a red flag. However, all three coaches averaged more than two points per league game and the progress of players signed showed no signs of slowing. That kind of succession is its own science. Coaching recruitment is less popularised but, Muzio says, as with players, the key is to properly contextualise performance and isolate effect. 'The market assesses the quality of coaches by looking at their rough budget and where their team finished. And if you've got someone that's kept over-performing their budget, then that's good. 'And that's a very logical way of doing things. Fortunately, we have access to the Jamestown Analytics' data (Bloom's recruitment-focused offshoot), which means that we can look deeper than just the budget and see whether the club spent well or poorly. 'We can see how well all the players were performing before the coach arrived and then after. Then, we can see whether the team has got better — and if so, why? Were they lucky? Was it something else?' How a coach suits the environment is equally important. Coaches who work under Muzio, CEO Philippe Bormans and sporting director Chris O'Loughlin, have to accept they will only be part of the conversation about incoming players, rather than the leading voice within it. Advertisement 'They need to fit in with our staff and with our structure, too,' Muzio says. 'New coaches need to realise that they're coming into a club that's already fully formed. A lot of candidates that we've interviewed before have had four or five people that they expect to bring with them, from job to job. 'The reality is — and this is not a criticism of them — but if they come in and bring four people with them, then that becomes the club. The other people — the existing staff — are just looking in, then. They're asking what the style is and what the methodology is. If we were to do that, the good staff that we have now would look around and think that they're not really having an influence. 'Then, as soon as that head coach gets an offer and leaves, he takes all his people with him and you've already lost all the people that were good before. You're just going to have your soul ripped out all the time. When Alexander Blessin came, for example, he didn't bring anyone. He came on his own. He had all the same physios, all the same analysts, and all the same coaches that Sebastien (Pocognoli) has now.' When a coach leaves, he does not take everything he has achieved — momentum included — with him. The evidence is in the team's performance this season and how another batch of RUSG players seem on their way to lucrative moves, further up the food chain. But, says Muzio, that's for the summer. 'Our aim is not just to buy players and churn them out for transfer fees, then take money out of the club. That is not the goal. Our goal is to be good.' RUSG are exactly that. They might also be nine games away from their first title in 90 years.
CBC
19-03-2025
- Sport
- CBC
'I'm here. I'm Canadian': Newcomers Jebbison, David eager to make mark with national men's soccer team
The role of national team head coach requires a particular set of skills. Jesse Marsch, the multi-faceted leader of the Canadian men's soccer side, has a special knack for diplomacy: He's excelled at convincing dual nationals — players who can represent more than one country — to play for him, and so for Canada. His latest converts, forwards Daniel Jebbison and Promise David, could make their Canadian debuts at this week's CONCACAF Nations League Finals. "I think both of these two are big talents," Marsch said. "Now when you look at our overall depth of attacking options… I think this is the strongest that the Canadian national team has ever looked." On Thursday, 31st-ranked Canada will play Mexico in one semifinal at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, after the United States and Panama meet in the other. The final and third-place game will take place Sunday. Jebbison, who plays for Bournemouth of the English Premier League, and David, who has enjoyed a breakout campaign for Belgium's Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, will provide first-rate cover for forwards Jonathan David and Cyle Larin. The newcomers will also be tested by their national-team introduction. Favoured Mexico, ranked 19th, will have a frenzied, 70,000-strong crowd heavily in their favour. "I'll be fine," David said this week from equally sunny Los Angeles. He scored a penalty away against Dutch giants Ajax in Europa League action last month. "When I put that ball down on the spot, it was the loudest thing I've heard. It was a great feeling. I can't wait to do it again." He might next do it for Canada. "It was always part of my plan," he said. FIFA, soccer's international governing body, has slowly codified what it means to be a national, trying to prevent countries like Qatar from naturalizing a team of ringers. Players need to demonstrate a "clear connection" to a country through birth, the nationalities of their parents or grandparents, or long-term residency. That still leaves plenty of players with a choice to make. Jebbison and David were born in Oakville and Brampton, Ont., respectively, making their Canadian bona fides easy to prove. But both previously represented other countries. The 21-year-old Jebbison, whose mother is English, made 13 appearances for England's youth teams. David played twice for the U23s in Nigeria, his family's country of origin. Because neither had been capped by senior sides, they still had time to make the switch to Canada. Jebbison left things a little late; he was made eligible for this week's games only after his paperwork came through with 24 hours to spare. "I kept my options open," he said. "For me, the reason it's Canada now: We're such a young, crazy athletic team. This is the fastest team I've ever seen in my life. I'm also young, I'm also fast, I'm also athletic. There's a co-relation there. Imagine us in our prime." The bulk of Jebbison's development came at Sheffield United before his move to Bournemouth last year. He's still finding his feet at the game's highest level, having begun the season on loan to Watford and coming on only as a last-minute substitute for the Cherries last weekend. Sometimes national-team success can accelerate a club career, however, and Jebbison is eager to give Marsch a quick return. "I'm here. I'm Canadian. I'm going to help this team, it's as simple as that. I can't wait to show you what I can do." David has endured a far more circuitous journey to the national side. His club career has included stops in Croatia, the U.S., Malta, Estonia, and now Belgium, where his confidence has finally caught up with his size. He's scored 11 goals in 24 appearances with RUSG this season. "I didn't take the conventional route," he said. "I walked into a casino and gambled on myself." Now he's won the chance to wear the maple leaf — "my family and friends are telling me I look good in red," he said with a huge smile — in a meaningful game. It's the fourth time the CONCACAF Nations League tournament has been held. The Americans claimed the first three trophies; Canada's best finish was second in 2023, after a 2-0 loss in the final. A rematch in this year's final would bring some serious fireworks, especially after the Wisconsin-born Marsch told U.S. President Donald Trump to "lay off the ridiculous rhetoric about Canada being the 51st state" last month. The coach has since made more fruitful pitches to Daniel Jebbison and Promise David. He's made two more men proud to call themselves Canadian. New Canada Shield tournament in June Canada will play Ukraine and the Ivory Coast in June at Toronto's BMO Field in a new four-team men's soccer tournament called the Canadian Shield. New Zealand is the other team taking part in the event, which consists of doubleheaders June 7 and June 10. Canada will open the tournament June 7 against Ukraine, with New Zealand taking on the Ivory Coast in the nightcap. On June 10, it's New Zealand versus Ukraine followed by Canada versus the Ivory Coast.
