A KAS Eupen player (right) in action. The Belgian club was acquired by Aspire Foundation last year.
Belgian football club KAS Eupen have started the new season in fine style, sitting atop the second division with a maximum nine points from their first three matches.
The team, based in Belgium’s Liege province near the German border, was acquired by Aspire Zone Foundation last year, and their black and white kit is adorned with the Aspire Academy logo.
KAS Eupen began the season in early August with an emphatic 4-0 victory away to RBD Borinage, followed up the next week with a 4-2 win against KSV Roeselare. And last Sunday their winning streak continued with a 2-0 away defeat of Royal White Star Bruxelles.
Belgium’s national team is now recognised as one of the world’s best, with several Belgians, including Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, now plying their trade at elite European clubs.
Eupen’s side contains several products of Aspire Academy’s ‘Football Dreams’ project, who were identified at an early age as some of the most promising footballers in the world. The club is gaining a reputation as a hothouse for players aged under 21, including Qatar’s Abdulaziz al-Ansari.
“We are extremely proud of the progress that the team has made over the last 12 months,” said Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy. “Our intention has always been to provide an outlet to some of the Academy’s brightest prospects in order to allow them to experience competitive football. In a short space of time, these young players have already exceeded our expectations and, I am sure, they can go on to achieve great things in the game,” he added.
KAS Eupen will be hoping that their flying start continues tonight, when they visit third-placed Royal Antwerp FC. And, on September 25, the young side will face an even stiffer test when they come up against Anderlecht, the nation’s most decorated team, in the Belgian Cup.
Anderlecht are currently competing in the UEFA Champions League, a competition that many of Eupen’s young professionals will undoubtedly participate in eventually if their present rate of progress continues.