Training and a return -- follow Cercle Bruges' time at the Performance Center!
One and the same family. In line with the numerous synergies between the two clubs, notably in their development of young players, Cercle Bruges started 2024 by coming to train at the AS Monaco Performance Centre AS Monaco. This is before returning to the second half of the season in Belgium, where they will, on January 20, face Racing Genk in a big match, and the Groen-Zwart have thus come to spend time with the Rouge et Blanc first team.
A training camp before the season’s second half.
They arrived on Monday to La Turbie, to begin this session, the players of Miron Muslic – who had the opportunity to speak (in German!) with Adi Hütter and to reconnect with Carlos Aviña, the former Cercle Sporting Director and to train daily..
All this, before playing a friendly match that is bound to be special for some, against the AS Monaco Elite Group on Saturday morning (11:00 CET). It’s special first of all for Jordan Semedo-Varela, who is on loan this season with Cercle and who was captain of the Monégasque reserves last season.
A return for loanees
And also for Félix Lemarechal, who also left for Belgium to accumulate playing time and experience, and who recently earned his starting stripes in support of Kevin Denkey, top scorer in the Jupiler Pro League (14 goals). The former resident of La Diagonale was happy to reconect with his friends: Eliesse Ben Seghir, Yann Lienard and Magnes Akliouche, in two sessions with the first team. It was also special for Radoslaw Majecki, who caught up with his teammates from last season.
Some former Academy players!
Among these memories, Boris Popović and Edgaras Utkus also accumulated plenty of education in the Principality, during their development at the Academy, before going to fully flourish in the Belgian first division. Young talent is a symbol of the strong links that exist between the two cousin clubs, sharing the ambition to train young players with high potential and also offer an attractive style of play, as Bruges have been doing since the start of the season.
A Cercle in perpetual evolution
Currently in 7th place in Belgium, the teammates of the new Brazilian recruits Felipe Augusto and Erick Nunes – seen for the first time at the Performance Center – showed that the club had reached a milestone in recent years. Respectively 10th and sixth in the Belgian top flight over the last two seasons, Cercle even made the play-offs for Europe last spring.
🇧🇷 Bem-vindo @FelipeAugust04 & Erick Nunes! Let’s go! 🟢⚫️ pic.twitter.com/hlpP4aAUHm
— Cercle Brugge (@cercleofficial) January 9, 2024
A strategy that bears fruit
All this happnens by trusting in youth (the team is 23 years old on average), and by developing an aggressive and proactive style of play, like what AS Monaco has been offering since the start of the year. It is therefore not surprising to find the Groen-Zwart at the top of the rankings of teams who run and press the most and who make the most high-intensity efforts in Belgium.
It is therefore time to share experience and infrastructure this week, and for some to reunite, between two training sessions with the same philosophy. Note that the Belgians will also attend the match against Reims this Saturday at the Stade Louis-II (5 p.m.), before returning to the “Venice of the North” this Sunday, at the end of a rich week.
Greetings from La Turbie. 🟢⚫️ pic.twitter.com/8946BAjfAy
— Cercle Brugge (@cercleofficial) January 10, 2024
Photos: Cercle Bruges
