Football – Belgium, a new El Dorado for the Swiss?
Published
By rejoicing the Union Saint-Gilloise, Cameron Puertas is following a trend. In recent months, many Super League players have chosen the flat country.
And if, past the mountains, there was the flat country? What if the future of Swiss players now lies in Belgium? Multiple occurrence is not general. But the transfer of Cameron Puertas, who left Lausanne last week to sign for Pro League leader Union Saint-Gilloise, is part of a trend. The Vaudois is the fourth element of Super League to land in Belgium. In a year and a half.
Puertas follows in the footsteps of Bastien Toma (left Sion for Genk in the summer of 2020), Leonardo Bertone (from Thun to Waasland-Beveren at the same time) and Stefan Knezevic (who left Lucerne last summer for Charleroi) . Without forgetting that Dereck Kutesa (on loan to Zulte-Waregem, after an inconclusive stint in Reims), and especially Michael Frey (who stacks the goals with Antwerp) are also there to swell the Swiss delegation between Flanders and Wallonia, which also complements each other at the lower level.
An intermediate step
What does this say about Swiss football? Above all, there is the idea that for those who perform in the Super League, the European top 5 championships are not obvious. Of course, when YB executives (Hefti in Genoa, before Aebsicher and Nsame?) leave Wankdorf after playing in the Champions League, it’s to really aim higher. As for the greatest talents (Imeri soon?). But for the others, those who have less experience but development potential, there may be a level to overcome before joining Italy or Germany.
Belgium has in fact become this intermediate stage. Already because the world level is higher there than the Super League. At the end of last season, the Pro League was the 9th European league according to the UEFA coefficient (based on the results of clubs in European Cups). At the level of the Dutch or Russian leagues, a little below Portugal and its three big teams, but above Austria. In this ranking, Switzerland was in a worrying 19th place. It will probably go back to the end of this season, benefiting in particular from the Champions League disputed by Young Boys and from Basel’s performances in the Conference League. It will be closer to a Belgium which is not really shining this season. But who has a recent past that argues for it.
And for the choice of Swiss players. What do they have to find in Belgium? “English-style football, very box-to-box, there is a lot of space and the second periods are often shared in attack-defense”, mentioned Geneva’s Dereck Kutesa last month. Paul Bollendorf, whose agency Soccer Mondial represents Bertone, Knezevic and Frey in particular, believes that the Swiss vision of Belgium must change: “As for the Netherlands, these are championships which come just behind the Big Five, says he. It’s almost better than going to some Ligue 1 clubs.” To the point that several Swiss fell from above when they arrived in their new club. Puertas is warned: he will have to be level.
An important market
But the interest is not only sporting. “The Belgian market is enormous, insists the agent. The clubs are constantly progressing, they have owners who invest, sports structures that develop, despite the pandemic. We do not realize the sums of transfers and salaries that Belgian clubs can spend. It is a completely different market from Switzerland.” In 2019-20, the average salary of a player playing in Belgian D1 was more than €430,000 annually. About 2.75 times greater than in the Super League.
It makes the decision easier. “Whoever is 15th in Belgium can thus pay better than the 3rd or 4th in Switzerland, adds Paul Bollendorf. It should be noted that it is a country which has a real football culture. And they have a league format, with play-offs, which has allowed clubs to be more competitive at European level. Our championships are not comparable, in terms of number of clubs, TV rights… It is our perception that must change.
The Waasland-Beveren case
So much for the elite of Belgian football. But Division 1B, the second national level, is also its share of Swiss. In particular on the side of Waasland-Beveren, current second in its championship (behind Westerlo of Léo Seydoux). The Flanders-based team has a slight Germanic accent, with the duo Marc Schneider-Pascal Cerrone as coach and assistant coach to guide them. And on the pitch, two other former Thounois are key elements: midfielder Leonardo Bertone, former Swiss champion with YB, and full-back Chris Kablan. Until the end of last season and relegation to D2, Michael Frey also scored goals in Beveren, before being transferred to Antwerp.
It is no coincidence that so many Swiss are gathered in this same little corner of Belgium, in a club 97% owned by the American investment fund Bolt Football Holdings and managed by Antoine Goubin, a Frenchman barely 31 years old. Even if the first to arrive, Bertone and Frey, are above all the result of the connections between their agents and Belgian football. It was before the arrival of a Swiss sporting director, at the start of 2021: Roger Stilz, now gone to Jahn Regensburg in the 2nd Bundesliga. The man who scoured several LNB clubs (including Etoile Carouge) at the turn of the 2000s was an assistant coach for a long time in Hamburg and Nuremberg, before participating in the development of the Belgian club by appointing Schneider coach. Nothing is a coincidence.
Leonard Bertone (Waasland-Beveren, D2, since 2020)
Michael Frey (Royal Antwerp, since 2021. Arrived in Belgium in 2020, in Waasland-Beveren)
Chris Kablan (Waasland-Beveren, D2, since 2021)
Stefan Knezevic (Sporting Charleroi, since 2021)
Dereck Kutesa (Zulte-Waregem, since 2021. On loan from Reims)
Aimery Pinga (Excelsior Virton, D2, since 2021)
Cameron Puertas (Union Saint-Gilloise, since 2022)
Mark Schneider (Waasland-Beveren coach, since 2021. Assisted by Pascal Cerrone)
Leo Seydoux (Westerlo, D2, since 2021)
Bastien Tome (Genk, since 2020)