The Rebirth of Union Saint-Gilloise: How an Underdog Side Conquered Belgium | OneFootball

Eleven years ago, Union Saint-Gilloise were in the third tier of Belgian Football, where they lost 2-0 to minnows Bocholter.

Fast forward to the same week in January 2026, Les Unionistes faced a visit to footballing royalty Bayern Munich in the Champions League, after securing automatic qualification for the competition by winning the Jupiler Pro League title in 2025.

From the Belgian third tier, to performing on the world stage – how did Union Saint-Gilloise get so good, so quickly?

A change in ownership

Union Saint-Gilloise were promoted to the second tier of Belgian football at the end of the 2014/15 season, where they would find themselves in promotion battles for the next six years, finishing no lower than sixth during that time.

It wouldn’t be until 2018, however, that they would truly skyrocket.

Tony Bloom is somebody who may be familiar to Premier League fans, with the Brighton Chairman making a name for himself through his smart business and data-driven approach to football ownership.

Once the Englishman purchased a majority stake in Union Saint-Gilloise in May 2018, it would take just two more seasons for promotion to arrive, with the club winning the 2nd division title in 2020/21. Since returning to the top flight, USG have yet to finish lower than third despite significant manager and player turnover, something the club has data to thank for.

A smart, modern approach

Tony Bloom is the owner of Jamestown Analytics, a data analysis company that offers its services to a select few top European clubs. Union Saint-Gilloise, after Tony Bloom’s takeover, became one of these clubs, and the impact of this new recruitment strategy became clear to see almost immediately.

Since the Englishman’s investment in the club, notable names such as Victor Boniface, Noah Sadiki and Deniz Undav, all spent periods with the club, being sold on for hefty profits once leaving. The signings of players such as these, as well as stalwarts like former Portsmouth centre-back Christian Burgess, led to the club being able to exceed expectations, and repeatedly sell their best players for a profit, a model keeping them at the pinnacle of Belgian football.

Sharing its ownership with Brighton, the club also makes effective use of loans, having helped kickstart the careers of now Premier League regulars Kaoru Mitoma and Simon Adingra, among several other youth loans that have bolstered the Belgian side’s ranks.

This clear pipeline to the peak of English football, as well as their history of not standing in the way of players moving to bigger clubs in Europe, also likely helps Union Saint-Gilloise attract young talent, with players viewing the club as a positive environment to further their careers.

Using data to inform recruitment isn’t a completely novel idea; many other clubs, such as Brentford, have shown the power of this strategy, and over the last few years, it has become more widely adopted.

Yet Jamestown Analytics still stands out from the crowd. The model aims to find value in players that others don’t or can’t see, both through a vast scouting network and in-depth data analysis.

What sets Jamestown Analytics apart is the depth and breadth of this data, having access to information that others simply don’t have. With every partnership and new member of their network, the number of working examples and datapoints increases, with Jamestown Analytics able to offer specific predictions with highly refined algorithms for how players will develop, how they will adapt to specific leagues and more.

These models extend to every area of club football, including staff, opposition analysis and more, not just player recruitment. The data provided isn’t a replacement for more traditional scouting, but creates focused shortlists of players fitting a certain requirement, i.e. tall, ball-playing centre-backs under the age of 23 who will adapt well to Belgian football and will likely cost under £4 million.

An example of a basic concept here might be signing a forward who is scoring at a rate lower than their expected goals suggest they should be from a somewhat unknown league, the idea being that you can teach them to finish their chances better, but it’s much harder to teach them how to get those chances in the first place.

This forward should come at a fairly reasonable price, as they may not yet have overly high output, but coach them correctly, and they can be flipped for a huge profit once their goalscoring numbers start lining up with their xG.

The list of talent that Union Saint-Gilloise have been able to bring through and develop using this model is extensive, with names such as Mohamed Amoura, now of Wolfsburg, being sold for over £9 million profit and Cameron Puertas, now of Werder Bremen, being sold for over ten times what the club originally paid for him. These transfer successes, along with too many others to mention, have led to Union Saint-Gilloise making an approximate transfer profit of just over £76 million since Tony Bloom’s takeover in 2018, all while becoming the strongest team in Belgium.

Cherry Picked managers

Jamestown Analytics isn’t just limited to player scouting, a fact that has greatly helped Union Saint-Gilloise.

Their manager turnover is constant and relentless, with five permanent managers since their return to the first tier, a factor that many clubs would find hard to navigate. Instead, the Belgian side has been able to quickly and consistently replace their managers well, with coaches like Sébastien Pocognoli, now of AS Monaco, who were potentially overlooked by other clubs due to a lack of coaching experience, age, or other factors, being given the opportunity at USG.

An opportunity only seen by the Belgian club – through data.

A key factor in the success of these appointments was that all five permanent managers at USG had experience coaching in Belgium – whether that be managing other clubs in the league, as with Felice Mazzù’s time at Genk, or familiarity with the club itself, as with Sébastien Pocognoli’s time as U21s manager.

These appointments tend to be young and adaptable coaches capable of bringing fresh ideas to the table, without being complete tactical overhauls from their predecessors. This often means no significant ‘bedding in’ period, coaches who can solve tactical issues they may face without needing to dip into the market, and a level of consistency that doesn’t require squad rebuilds every time a new coach is appointed.

This clear club identity also once again helps the Belgian side with their transfer business, being able to scout and track players for longer periods without needing to drastically change the profile of player they are after based on the coach, as well as being able to keep unnecessary ‘panic spending’ to a minimum.

Consistency is key

With so much chopping and changing going on in terms of player and coaching turnover, Union Saint-Gilloise have found other ways to keep some consistency and stability within the club.

Long-standing sporting director Chris O’Loughlin has clearly aimed to create a stable environment through the somewhat consistent style of play through the previously mentioned managerial appointments.

The club have, for the most part, played a back three or five system, using wingbacks to create width in attack. Physical, but ball-playing defenders are favoured, pacey, technical wide players are a staple, and big, powerful centre-forwards often get minutes.

This consistency in tactical style means that there can also be consistency between squads. While player turnover is high, this allows players like Cameron Burgess and Kevin Mac Allister, brother of Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, to be mainstays in the starting eleven, regardless of who is managing the team, adding some much-needed stability.

Additionally, Union Saint-Gilloise have had success using internal replacements, a strategy being used to great effect by fellow data-based club Brentford, who currently sit seventh in the Premier League under Keith Andrews.

Both Karel Geraerts, of Reims, and Sébastien Pocognoli held other roles at the club before their appointments as manager – assistant manager and U21s manager respectively. These roles allowed the coaches to become familiar with the players they would be coaching, understand the club’s model and ways of working, and meant that their tactical identities didn’t drastically differ from their predecessors, instead meaning that they could hit the ground running, while putting their own spin on the existing style of play.

It can’t go on like this, can it?

‘It can!’

The model that Union Saint-Gilloise follow means that even if several of their best players are sold in the same window, they will likely have replacements already lined up who can fill those gaps. Simply put, it’s sustainable.

The profits they have already made from player trading, as well as additional funding from playing in European competitions, mean that they’re at little risk of financial difficulties, and, as no one seems to have found a better recruitment method (yet), Union Saint-Gilloise feel like a club that has the potential to go far.