The dream of the Europa League from the park in Brussels

The modest and historic club from Brussels, on May 31st in the Puskas Arena in Budapest, is aiming for the same final of the Europa League as Sevilla, which only two years ago competed in the second Belgian category, after a decade of struggle, and declared itself last year, in its historic return in the elite, regular league champion. The Joseph Marien Stadium, with a capacity of only 9,400 people, will receive today (21:00 Champions League 4) in Bayer Leverkusen after the match (1-1) in the first leg. “The first time I entered the field I thought: This can’t be a stadium,” he says. Dennis Eckertforward of Royale Union Saint-Gilloisethe team that surprised Europe.

“The stands are in the park, and on the other side the streets are integrated into the city. It’s all too old. It’s a place that has nothing to do with what I’ve seen before,” describes Eckert, with his mother from Galicia, a space in which some wooden benches have been preserved and in which, by decision of his fans, whistling is not watched or dedicated to chanting the opposing team. . “Every match is a holiday. It’s like a big family, the same ones always come and I think everyone should get to know each other by now,” says the former Celta player, who arrived in 2017 as a replacement for Borja Iglesias and with whom he made his debut in the First League, with a laugh.

He has his own brand of beer

“If you ever have the opportunity to come to the stadium, you will understand that the game here is something special. Our fans are working-class people, they like to meet two hours before the game and drink a few beers,” says Eckert. They can do so with their own brand 1897, in honor of the year the club was founded, which attracted a lot of Spanish immigration in the 1950s and 1960s.

The history of the Royale Union Saint-Gilloise was interrupted by the Second World War. Until the outbreak of war, it was the most successful team in Belgium. He won eleven titles and the same number of runners-up. He reached a historic streak of 60 games without defeat. But in 1936, his list of trophies was reduced. The club did not become professional and was swallowed by the neighboring Anderlecht, since then the hegemonic team of the capital. After many seasons of problems, Union was relegated in 1973 and entered a drift that ended with a relegation, a decade later, to the fourth category.

He was saved by a poker player

In 2018, Tony Bloom, a professional poker player who bought Brighton & Hove Albion nine years earlier, became its largest shareholder. The club was then in the third division. He surrounded himself with a team of young people. He handed the reins to Alex Muzio, investor and chairman, with Philippe Bormans as chief executive, and appointed Chris O’Loughlin as sporting director. Despite his millionaire status, he achieved promotion to the Second Division without a huge transfer fee and returned to the First Division in 2022, 48 years after relegation. Last season, their return to the elite, with the third lowest budget in the division, Saint-Gilloise became, with a squad that included fourteen different nationalities, the first newly promoted team to win the regular Belgian league, allowing them to compete for the title —which plays in the playoffs with the four best classified and wins Bruges— and return to the European competition.

This season they are second, two points behind Genk. “It can no longer be called luck,” says Eckert. In the round of 16 of the Europa League, Saint-Gilloise eliminated Unión Berlin after a draw in the first leg (3-3) and a loss (3-0) at Joseph Marien. That peculiar stadium, integrated into Duden Park in Brussels, which is already dreaming of knocking down another German and reaching the semi-finals.

Dennis Eckert: “Why won’t we be champions?”

Dennis Eckert (Bonn, 1997) arrived in Saint-Gilloise last summer from another German club, Ingolstadt, the team he joined after leaving Vigo. “I was there for three years and the club entered a dynamic that I did not want. I like playing football, not just fighting long balls. I had the feeling that the team took a path that was not for me. The association offered me the opportunity to play in Europe and I didn’t think about it.” He signed for three seasons.

He started out as the starting power forward, but injuries have plagued him. He reappeared this weekend after almost three months without competing due to a knee injury. And he fantasizes about being important in what remains. “I came back in the most beautiful. We want to continue in Europe. Why won’t we be champions this year?” believes the striker, who admits that he is thinking about returning to Spain.

With a German father and a Tui mother, Eckert has family in Guillarei and has rented a house in Vigo to spend the summer holidays with his family. “It is my country, I feel part of it and that will never change. It is a place that will always be a part of my life.

“Celta didn’t want me in the photo”

In memory of Dennis, his bittersweet time at Celta. “It was my team from childhood and being able to become a professional was something incredible. Unzué and Mohamed counted on me and trusted me. I was 20 years old and the team meant everything to me. It was the little things that got me down. I was a starter, and then someone banned me from appearing in the official first team photo. I did not understand. There was a person who thought I didn’t deserve to be there,” he recalls of his departure from Celta, to which he joined from the Monchengladbach branch.