Football Season Guide

A superb domestic season for Royal Antwerp in 2022/23 saw them complete the league and cup double for the first time in their history. It wasn’t all plain sailing with the league title secured with a last minute equaliser on the final day. The summer has seen speculation over the future of Head Coach Mark van Bommel with interest from clubs abroad but it looks like he will stay at least for this season. On the playing staff, Antwerp have lost talented centre-back Pacho who has an ever present last season. Important midfielder Stengs' loan spell has ended but he looks set to imminently return on a permanent basis. There are doubts over the future of undisputed number 1 Jean Butez. If he leaves though the fee received will be reinvested into the squad. The incoming transfers so far have been younger players to hopefully challenge the established starters. A strength of the club is that they seem to have a good structure in place from the board and manager to the senior players like striker Janssen (First Division A top scorer last season) and centre-back Alderweireld, everyone is pulling in the same direction. The question is can they maintain and even improve on their excellent levels from last season?