Lorenzo Staelens was the strongman of Club Brugge for many years and later became the same at Anderlecht. The ex-midfielder/defender has now completely disappeared from football and also believes that neither of his two ex-clubs deserve the title.
Staelens was still active as a trainer in the lower classes, but is now a representative and no longer wants to give up that job. I miss football, but I am realistic enough to realize that no club is waiting for me anymore,” he says Primo.
“Plus: should I risk my job for something so uncertain? My last offer was to become an assistant at KV Kortrijk under Glen De Boeck. If you see how that turned out…”
“In retrospect, it was a good decision not to go into that. I don’t have much desire to do that anymore. Now that I’m 60, I will continue working for another five to seven years and then retire. Not that I’m looking forward to it. My job doesn’t feel like work, because I enjoy doing it.”
He can still get excited about football. “I am still against those play-offs. In principle, Union should be champions three times in a row and they will probably get zero out of three. You can suggest that all clubs know how the system works and should adapt to it. But still …”
“I still advocate the old system without all that calculation, speculation and counting: first and second matches and whoever has the most points at the end is the champion. It doesn’t matter to me who that will be.”
