Club Brugge has secured the Belgian championship for the 20th time. Two attacking players who once played in the 2. Bundesliga played a major role in this success.
Last season, Club Brugge narrowly lost out to Union Saint-Gilloise in the title race. The Brussels side went into the final match with a one-point lead, kept their cool, and claimed the crown for the first time in exactly 90 years.
For a long time, it looked as though Saint-Gilloise would be able to defend its title this year. On Matchday 3, the reigning champions took the lead and never relinquished it. By Matchday 30, they had lost only two games and thus entered the championship round—which in Belgium features the top six teams after the first and second legs, with points halved—with a three-point lead over second-place Brugge.
In their matches against the other top teams, Saint-Gilloise continued to show few weaknesses early on, even beating Bruges 2-1 in mid-April to extend their lead to four points. However, while the newly crowned cup champions managed only four points from their next three matches, Bruges used the defeat as an opportunity to launch a winning streak. With a 3-1 win at Anderlecht in early May, Brugge overtook the defending champions in the standings after the latter had lost 1-2 in Sint-Truiden the day before.
Seven titles in eleven years
Brugge did not let this advantage slip away; the head-to-head match last Sunday proved decisive, turning into a demonstration of Brugge’s dominance. After 90 minutes, the score was 5-0. Saint-Gilloise also failed to win in their next match on Thursday evening; in Ghent, they could not get past a 0-0 draw after a goal by former Trier player Mateo Biondic—who is currently shining in Belgium—was disallowed just before the final whistle. Thus, a 2-2 draw in Mechelen was enough for Bruges in their parallel match to seal the title race on the penultimate matchday.
Overall, this is Bruges’ 20th championship; only RSC Anderlecht ranks higher in this list, albeit by a wide margin (38). Bruges celebrated its first title as early as 1920, but it has only become particularly dominant in recent years. Including this latest success, the club has won the title seven times in the last eleven seasons.
At the heart of the current championship squad are two well-known attacking players from the 2. Bundesliga, whose performances have contributed significantly to the team’s success. Christos Tzolis, who wore the Fortuna Düsseldorf jersey in 2023/24, contributed 16 of the 86 league goals scored to date, in addition to 23 assists.
The Greek’s dynamic partner is Nicolo Tresoldi, who arrived from Hannover last summer. The German U-21 national team player scored exactly as many goals in the league as Tzolis. In the draw in Mechelen, the two players even set each other up for their goals. Tzolis initially put his team ahead, and after the opposition equalized, Tresoldi scored the 2-1 goal. The fact that the defenders allowed the opposition to equalize shortly before the end was ultimately secondary, given Saint-Gilloise’s 0-0 draw at KAA Gent.
If you add his Champions League stats, Tresoldi has 19 goals to his name, which has even caught the eye of Julian Nagelsmann. While it wasn’t quite enough to secure a World Cup spot, there’s now all the more time to celebrate reclaiming the championship trophy with his teammates.
