The humble Royale Union Saint-Gilloise from Brussels, a historic team that after 86 years of drought dazzles again, this weekend became the first recently promoted second division club to win the regular league of the highest category of the championship from Belgium.
The Apaches he trains Happy Mazzu, who have a budget of 16 million euros, the third lowest in the championship, kicked off the season with an away victory in the Brussels derby against Anderlecht. And they confirmed their good path this weekend also as visitors by endorsing a 1-3 to Standard de Liège, another “great” from Belgium.
In the absence of a day to conclude the regular league of 18 teams, with 74 points and 5 advantage over Bruges, second, the Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, is guaranteed the first position in the table, with which they will start with an advantage in the “play off” that will determine the league champion on May 23.
The Brusselenses, who have not played in the First Division since 1973, are also guaranteed a place in European competitions, but they will have to decide which one after the mini-championship they will play in the final stretch of the season.
The top four teams will play a six-game tournament in which the teams start with half the points collected in the regular season, adjusted with a calculation between the number of wins, the difference in goals for and against and the goals and goals scored away from home.
The champion of that “play off” will enter the group stage of the Champions League, the second in the preliminary phase of the maximum continental competition, the third in the Europa League and the fourth in the Confederations League. In addition, the teams classified from 5th to 8th in the regular season will play another mini-tournament for another place in the Europa League.
Part of the club’s success goes through the German’s boots Deniz Udavwho has scored 25 goals and 9 assists, and the Belgian Dante Vanzeirwho has 13 goals and 11 decisive passes, the fashionable duo in Belgian football.
In a cosmopolitan team with 15 nationalities in the locker room, they have also contributed to the Royale Union SG’s football dream the Danish Casper Nielsonwith 7 goals, the French Teddy Teumawho totals 9 assists, the Japanese Kaoru Mitoma or the Spanish Alex Millan and Cameron Doors.
A LITTLE HISTORY
The Royale Union Saint Gilloise, founded in 1897, won eleven titles and eleven runners-up until the 1935/36 season, going 60 games without losing between 1933 and 1935. This is where one of the club’s nicknames came from: Union 60.
But the yellow and blue team from the Belgian capital deflated after the Second World War, when the rest of the clubs became professional and Anderlecht became from then on the great team from Brussels.
The Apaches lost the first category in 1973, reached the fourth division and did not rise again to the highest level of Belgian football in almost five decades, until in 2018 it appeared Tony Bloomprofessional poker player, millionaire and chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League since 2009.
Bloom became the first shareholder of the Brussels club and made the right signings without spending a euro, giving crucial importance to the analysis of player data, both on and off the pitch.
The owner handed over the reins of the club to alex muzioinvestor and president, shielded by Philippe Bormans as CEO and for Chris O’Loughlin as sports director. The club was quickly promoted to the second division and jumped to the first in the current 2021/22 season.
Another of the great assets of the Royale Union SG are its fans, closely related to the Spanish immigration that arrived in Brussels in the 50s and 60s, now transformed into hipsters, Eurobureaucrats and modern urbanites who keep the essence of a club that from the past January has its own beer brand, 1897.
They sit on wooden benches to watch their team at the 9,400-capacity Stade Joseph Marien with Duden Park in the background, and they behave in an extremely respectful manner: it is forbidden to whistle, insult or sing against the rival, who is considered a guest at the house of football.
Now they dream of seeing their team beat the Champions League because, as the Belgian-Lluxembourgish goalkeeper summed up Anthony Morris on Twitter after confirming the first place in the regular league: “Europe is calling”.