Qualla: 2013-14 Belgian Second Division

2013-14 Belgian Second Division: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Scroll down the Westerlo squad list for 2013-14 and you will find, somewhere in the second tier of contributors, a thin Belgian teenager who scored three goals that year. His name was Leandro Trossard. A decade later he would be lifting trophies with Arsenal and playing for Belgium at a World Cup. In 2013-14, he was a 19-year-old learning the second-tier game in a small Antwerp-province town, scoring just often enough to be noticed.

2013-14 Belgian Second Division: Westerlo's Quiet Coronation

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The season ran from 2 August 2013 to 27 April 2014, branded as the Belgacom League. Westerlo won it, comfortably enough that they took both the second and third period titles outright. Eupen had grabbed the first period, but once Westerlo's machine started moving there was no rea...

2013-14 Belgian Second Division: The Player Who Was Not Yet Famous

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trossard had come up through Genk's academy and arrived at Westerlo on loan as a developing winger. He was not the focus of the team. The focus was Raphael Lecomte, who scored six. The focus was the experienced Belgian striker Kevin Vandenbergh. Trossard, with his three goals and...

2013-14 Belgian Second Division: Other Apprenticeships

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trossard was not alone. The 2013-14 scoring tables included Christian Kabasele, a Eupen defender who would later sign for Watford and play in the Premier League for years. Antonio Jakolis, Salomon Nirisarike, Thibault Peyre, John Bostock - all of them would have careers extending...

2013-14 Belgian Second Division: The Old Wikitext Tells You Less Than You Think

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Wikipedia article on the 2013-14 season is, like most season articles, a long list of stat tables. It records the goals, the period winners, the team movements. What it cannot record is which apparently unremarkable contributor was about to disappear into the Premier League a...