From Victor Osimhen to Willian Pacho: Four of the best players to come out of the Belgian Pro League in recent years | OneFootball

When it comes to refining raw, unpolished youngsters and giving them the platform to succeed at the top level of world football, there are few leagues that can compare to the Jupiler Pro League. Sitting just outside of Europe’s top five leagues, the Belgian top-flight is the perfect environment for academy talents to grow into themselves and for young prospects to develop into readymade stars.

It’s considered one of the best feeder leagues in Europe alongside the Primeira Liga and Eredivisie, and it continues to churn out a steady supply of footballers who can then take the next step to a major competition. Today, we’re taking a look at the best players who made their name in Belgium.

Victor Osimhen

Victor Osimhen is considered one of the finest center forwards in world football, but back in the summer of 2018, he was an unknown talent who had struggled for game-time at Wolfsburg. Malaria had weakened his body so much that neither Zulte Waregem nor Club Brugge were willing to sign him on loan – instead, it was another Belgian club, Charleroi, who took a chance on him.

Osimhen scored 20 goals in 36 appearances in Belgium and earned a transfer to Lille, where the Nigerian striker excelled in attack and won the Prix Marc-Vivien Foé award, given to the best African player in France’s top-flight. One year after joining Lille for €12 million plus another €3 million in bonuses, Osimhen made the move to Napoli for a club-record €70 million with €10 million in potential bonuses.

It didn’t take him long to pay off that price tag and establish himself as a club legend – in 2022/23, Osimhen became the first African player to finish as the top scorer in Serie A, whilst he also guided Napoli to their first league title in over three decades. He’s now plying his trade on loan for Turkish side Galatasaray, but it’s seemingly only a matter of time before he departs for one of the biggest clubs in world football.

Jonathan David

After selling Osimhen to Napoli, Lille once again turned to the Belgian market for his replacement, signing Jonathan David in 2020. David had left Canada for Belgium shortly after turning 18, excelling in Gent’s attack and finishing as the joint-top scorer in the 2019/20 Belgian Pro League season.

“[David is] a tremendous player,” stated Steven Caldwell, who worked alongside David as Canada’s assistant coach between 2019 and 2021. “He’s a very smart player who understands what’s asked of him defensively, he’s second to none in attack. You don’t have to repeat things to him too often, he gets it quickly.”

“He’s a humble, down-to-earth, hard-working guy,” added Caldwell. “He quietly goes about his business and does his job, he scores a lot of goals, and I think he’s going to keep improving through his mid-thirties. His brain is so smart that I think he’s going to keep improving. It was a pleasure coaching him…he’s going to go somewhere huge this summer.”

Since then, David has led Lille to their first Ligue 1 title in a decade, become the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Canada national team, and emerged as one of the finest young strikers in Europe. He’s the third-all-time leading scorer in Lille’s history with 102 goals in 214 appearances, and he too looks set to depart for greener pastures this summer.

Loïs Openda

In contrast to Jonathan David and Victor Osimhen, who grew up in Canada and Nigeria, Loïs Openda spent his childhood in Liège, Belgium before deciding to head to Brugge at the age of 15. He made his senior debut at Club Brugge and managed 5 goals in 53 appearances before heading to the Netherlands in 2020, where he enjoyed two successful loan spells at Vitesse Arnhem.

It was enough to earn him a move to Lens, with Openda relishing the move to France by scoring 21 goals in 42 appearances and nearly guiding them to a first-ever Ligue 1 title, only to miss out on the championship by a point to PSG. Rather than participating in the UEFA Champions League with Lens, Openda elected to move to Germany and join RB Leipzig for a club-record €43 million.

Openda was able to deliver a scintillating debut campaign with 24 goals in the league alone, second only to Harry Kane and Serhou Guirassy. At 24 years of age, he’s going strong and taking his game to the next level at Leipzig, and he’s more than capable of challenging Romelu Lukaku for Belgium’s starting center forward position in the near future.

Willian Pacho

The Belgian Pro League doesn’t just manufacture impressive young strikers, but midfielders, goalkeepers and defenders as well. Willian Pacho was just 20 years old when Royal Antwerp’s scouts spotted him at Independiente del Valle and offered him a five-year contract in January 2022. After playing just three league matches in his first season, Pacho emerged as one of the first names on the team sheet in 2022/23 under Mark van Bommel, helping them qualify for the title play-offs and win the Belgian Cup Final.

Pacho headed to Germany in the summer of 2023, where he quickly solidified himself as a key figure in central defense and started 42 matches in all competitions. After just one season in the Bundesliga, Pacho joined Paris Saint-Germain for a whopping €40 million, slotting into the backline alongside Marquinhos and proving himself as an indispensable figure under Luis Enrique. At 23 years of age, Pacho is now a full-fledged starter for both Ecuador and PSG, and he currently sits atop PSG’s charts for clearances per 90 (3.4) and interceptions per 90 (1.8).

Three years after plying his trade in Ecuador, Pacho has established himself as one of the top defenders in Ligue 1 as well as a regular contributor in the UEFA Champions League for Les Parisiens. However, if it wasn’t for his brief spell in Belgium, he may never have acquired the stable platform to launch him to stardom.

Zach Lowy