Cup final 2013

May 2013, a very strange day for us fans of Cercle Brugge. The week before our favourite club needs to play matches to avoid relegation, they are in the Cup Final of Belgium agains KRC Genk.
I remember it to be one of the last moments I could identify myself with my favourite colours.

Cercle players cheering after a goal in the 2012/2013 season, with local heroes, Denis Viane, Hans Cornelis, Frederik Boi...

Cercle, has always been a club that is somewhat looked down upon by other teams. The reason is simple, our neighbour team Club Brugge, plays in the same stadium for averaging around 26500 supporters. Cercle has to do it with an average of 5 to 6000. That means the stadium always looks kind of empty, although 6000 fans are there. But we don't care about that, we like our team, and the atmosphere is great.
2013 we lost the Cup Final, but we avoided relegation to the second tier of Belgian football. But it happened a year later. Eventually things got so bad, we almost went down to the 3rd (amateur) tier, one goal was decisive to stay in the second league. But supporters still came and cheered for their club. With a sense of sarcasm, we are known for.

Saved from bankruptcy

But then the worst part happened. Financially, Cercle was virtually bankrupt. So, something had to happen. And it did. A very rich Russian oligarch, Dmitry Ryblolovlev, and owner of AS Monaco saw an opportunity in Cercle Brugge. He bought the majority of the shares and so it happened. Officially Cercle Brugge was saved. The talk was, they would keep the values and mentality of the locals and the youth of Cercle would get its chances in the main team.

Now, 3 years later, Cercle is back for it's second season in 1A , the Jupiler Pro League. But, there is one big problem. Me and loads of other fans, can't identity themselves with the club anymore.
2/3rds of the squad is of French origin, most of them loaned out from AS Monaco. Youngsters of the own academy don't get chances. Belgians are a rarity in the squad. Even the language of communication is mostly French.

To my surprise, one new Belgian player has signed yesterday, Stef Peeters on the right. He is the first Belgian of 10 new signings, the others? French or African...

What to do with that? I can't help it, my heart is still beating for this club, but it isn't the same anymore. The supporters stayed, but everything else is like it has been moved over here, from about 1250 kilometers away... Only the colours stayed! Luckily...

Give us our club back, please...

Sincerely,

Pele23