Noa Lang is a sort of commodity who has lit up the league in his stint with the champions of Belgium. He formed dangerous partnerships with the likes of Bas Dost and Charles De Ketelaere and has become unplayable on his day. I think he knew that this season was himself ‘closing the curtain’ on his time in the Belgian Pro League, an utterly underrated first division which has been dominated by Club Brugge in recent years. It was primarily Noa Lang, not the managers — Ivan Leko, Philippe Clement and most recently Alfred Schreuder — who stole the show and made the key interventions on the way to another championship.
Lang moving to Club was an outstanding move for everyone, really. The club gained a star player. The player showed that he could lead a team and everything worked. Lang proved himself as a tricky and tenacious attacker with an eye for goals and assists. It was almost a match made in heaven and his performances in Europe, notably against Paris Saint Germain, helped spark interest in the forward from many clubs in the top-five leagues, potentially including the champions of Italy! And with that, we know the Rossoneri aren’t strangers to the Pro League with Alexis Saelemaekers moving to the San Siro just a couple of seasons ago.
With all of this, who else may come off of this Pro League conveyor belt? Are there other players who have set the league alight with their skill, helping to take his club to another level?
The most obvious name is and should be Charles De Ketelaere. Lang’s teammate wasn’t completely convincing the season before last and still needed “polishing”: When so much was being said about his potential, I still couldn’t see it. However, something seemed to click this season. He was the go-to man for me and for Club Brugge. A player who stepped up and did more than live off of a goal versus Zenit St Petersburg a couple of seasons ago. I always feel that if you’re to make it in a bigger league, you have to be the one who makes the difference every single week and not just now and again. A huge example is Erling Håland who dominated Austria and took that into Europe with them, to then run riot in the Bundesliga. If he was a goal every 3-4 games type of player, does he progress?