Soon after Racing Club Genk had clinched their fourth Belgian Pro League title and the season was done, crowds filled the city streets, supporters harmonised into the night and players partied until the sun rose again. Their jubilation was understandable – Genk is a family club from a small industrial city in Limburg with a 31-year history, yet there they were standing at the summit once again.
As the fans and players celebrated, the club had no choice but to move on and quickly concern itself with one simple question: what happens next?
There are few leagues in Europe like the Belgian Pro League. Over the past five seasons, four clubs have won the title. The difference in income between the top teams is relatively small and even then, Genk were the fifth-richest club last season. Finishing fifth, the season before seemed to help the squad greatly as the players flew low under the radar. With sufficient breathing space to develop as a team, they soared.
This year, they have no such fortune. For a team like Genk, who host Liverpool in the Champions League on Wednesday, success presents a showroom for the bigger clubs and the vultures are always there to lure their players away.
Genk are no strangers to the ephemeral nature of football. The walls of its academy are lined with photos of the countless young players the club has produced or developed, including Kevin De Bruyne to Thibaut Courtois. As soon those players are close to fulfilling their talent, they are gone.
For Koen Daerden, technical director at the Genk youth academy, the commitment to youth and to the technical, intelligent players is a key pillar of their philosophy: “What we are doing is all about vision from the youngest, under-7 till under-21,” he says. “It’s one line. We continuously have to change our manner to look forward ... but the philosophy stays the same. It’s to give young people time, to be patient.”
Genk’s biggest departures at the end of the season were their captain, Leandro Trossard, now at Brighton, Ruslan Malinovskyi and the manager, Philippe Clement. It could have been worse. The club spent a nervous summer anticipating transfers for their other talismans; the Tanzania striker Mbwana Samatta is an intelligent finisher who scored 32 goals last season and the 6ft 4in Norwegian Sander Berge, 21, bossed most midfields. In the end, they decided to remain for one more year.
With the additions of Théo Bongonda and two 20-year-olds in Ianis Hagi, son of the great Romanian midfielder Gheorghe Hagi, and the Colombian defender Carlos Cuesta, it could even be argued that they are even stronger.
But Genk sit in sixth. The attempts of the manager, Felice Mazzù, to focus on defensive stability have been relatively successful. On Saturday, after an acrid 1-0 away defeat to Standard Liège, the usually cool Mazzu brandished a screenshot of a contentious decision to a journalist. The pressure is clearly mounting.
“It’s part of our club,” says Darden. “We know that we have to build again after a championship, after a few good years. With a new coach, with other young, developing players like Hagi. They take some time.
“Three years ago, we had first-class players who were sitting on the bench in the beginning and in the end they made us champions.”
Belgian football is not immediately known for the behaviour of its crowds, but perhaps it should be. During the celebrations in a Genk club, Trossard led the fans as they belted out a pitiful, childish homophobic cheer that has spread across the league in recent seasons, aimed at Club Brugge: “All farmers are gays”. During the inevitable apology, his excuse was that he was drunk.
In the bitter Limburg derby against Sint-Truiden, Genk relinquished a 3-0 away half-time lead for 3-3. All the while, the Genk goalkeeper, Gaëtan Coucke, was pelted with bottles and lighters while the Genk fans broke the plexiglass screen erected to separate them and their flares from the pitch.
The match was abandoned and now the possibility of fines, deducted points and closed-door games loom. Both teams blame the other.
In their previous two Champions League appearances, Genk have played their home and away games like two different clubs. They have been battered 5-0, 6-0 and 7-0 away to Chelsea, Real Madrid and Valencia, but they held each team to solid draws at home. There has been little difference this year. A terrified Genk was ravaged 6-2 away by Red Bull Salzburg, but Mazzù’s defensive focus was justified by a spirited 0-0 home draw with Napoli. They are chasing their first win.
“This is the KRC Genk that you will see more often in the future, said Hagi after Napoli. “The newcomers are gradually starting to find their way. I think it is normal that something like this can take a few months, but beautiful moments are coming.”
Hagi will face Liverpool on his 21st birthday. It seems impossible, but there would be no greater stage to produce one of those beautiful moments and mark a first certain step towards wherever this club is heading to next.
