Newcomer could win Belgian championship

Football is always ready to give unexpected and big surprises, it is known, it is a fundamental part of the DNA of this sport and probably if it were not so, it would lose that magic that distinguishes it. And in Belgium, in the Pro League to be precise, something is about to happen that we could almost call a fairytale, almost but not quite. The Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, better known as Union, is close to winning the championship, after having ended the season at the top of the table. For those who don't know, the Belgian league title is not awarded at the end of the usual 34 days but with the playoffs that only the top four play. In the first two games, the team owned by the two English investors Tony Bloom (former owner of Brighton) and Alex Muzio is still undefeated, confirming both the goodness of the project and the great ambitions.

At the beginning of the year, the small Belgian team was thought to be a goner, since after their historic promotion they had only bought unknown players from equally unknown leagues, not convincing the experts at all. But theirs is actually a project with solid foundations, behind their football market there is a careful study and an in-depth analysis of each player. "We made a considered choice, we didn't buy a club in France, Italy or Spain because in those leagues you have to invest too much to be able to aim for the top positions. That's not the case in Belgium. And we wanted a club to win with."

As reported in the Post article, the Union can be compared to Pro Vercelli, who won seven championships in Italy in the early twentieth century but were then inevitably surpassed by the big teams that over time have established their dominance, while the Belgian team, like the Italian one, has remained bogged down in the lower categories, unable to find the way to success. Yet something could change, after returning to the top Belgian league after 50 years, Union are just a few points away from a sensational and unexpected success that has been missing for 87 years.