Racing Genk

Full name	Koninklijke Racing Club Genk
Founded	1923 (creation) July 1, 1988 (merge)
Ground	Cristal Arena (since 2007, before Fenix Stadion), Genk (Capacity: 24,000)
Chairman	Harry Lemmens
Manager	Pierre Denier
League	Jupiler League
2008-09	Belgian First Division, 8th
Home colours Away colours

K.R.C. Genk, usually referred to as Racing Genk is a Belgian football club based in the city of Genk in Belgian Limburg. It was formed in 1988 by the merger of Waterschei Thor and K.F.C. Winterslag. It is currently one of the four most successful clubs in Belgium and regularly qualifies for European competitions. It has won the championship twice and the cup three times, most recently in 2009. The club has been in the first division since the 1996-97 season.

Contents 1 History 1.1 K.F.C. Winterslag history (1923--1988) 1.2 K. Waterschei S.V. Thor Genk 1.3 K.R.C. Genk history (1988 - present) 2 Honours 3 European record 4 Current squad 5 Out on loan 6 Noted past players 7 Noted managers 8 External links

[edit] History

[edit] K.F.C. Winterslag history (1923--1988)

The club F.C. Winterslag was founded in 1923 and it became that year a member of the Belgian Football Association that gave it the matricule n°322. On its 35th anniversary the club changed its name to K.F.C. Winterslag. In 1972 Winterslag reached the second division and it eventually qualified for the 1974-75 season in the first division after finishing second in the final round. It had taken advantage of the increase in the number of first division clubs (from 16 to 20). The club ended the season in last place but won the second division right after.

K.F.C. Winterslag reached the 5th place in 1981 but two seasons later it was relegated to the second stage after a disappointing last place. That season Standard Liège won the championship on bribery in a match against the club of Waterschei Thor that would eventually merge with the matricule n°322. Following a spell of four seasons in the second division, Winterslag found its place again in the first division by winning the 1987 final round, one point ahead of Tongeren. It finished 15th on 18 but at the end of the season, the club merged with the neighbour club of Waterschei Thor which was playing in the second division since its relegation in 1986.

[edit] K. Waterschei S.V. Thor Genk

K. Waterschei S.V. Thor Genk was created in 1919 as Waterschei's Sport Vereeniging Thor with Thor being the acronym of Tot Herstel Onzer Rechten ("To recover our rights"). It registered to the FA only in 1925 and received the matricule n°533. The club enjoyed a spell in the first division in the late 1950s to the early 1960s and again from 1978 to 1986. After two seasons in the second division, K. Waterschei S.V. Thor Genk merged with K.F.C. Winterslag to form K.R.C. Genk. During the season 1982-83, the match Standard Liège-Waterschei had been bribed and the Standard eventually won the championship. Waterschei won the Belgian Cup twice (1980 and 1982). Quite remarkably, the latter victory led to Waterschei reaching the Semi - Finals of the European Cup Winners Cup in season 1982 - 83. After defeating PSG in the Quarter - Finals, Waterschei lost the First Leg of the Semi - Final 5 - 1 at Pittodrie, home of the eventual winners, Aberdeen F.C. A 1 - 0 victory in Waterschei, courtesy of Eddy Voordeckers, could not reverse the position. They then absorbed into Winterslag in 1988 to form the current club.

[edit] K.R.C. Genk history (1988 - present)

The new club was named K.R.C. Genk and as it kept the matricule of Winterslag, it began in the first division but it finished last. The next year Genk managed to win the final round in 2nd division and then played 4 seasons in the first division. In 1995 the board hired Aimé Anthuenis as a coach and Racing finished second and skipped the final round as two first division teams merged (Seraing and Standard Liège). After an eighth place in 1997, the club had a good 1997-98 season with a cup win and a second place in the championship. In its first European season, Racing Genk eliminated successively Apolonia and MSV Duisburg but it lost to RCD Mallorca in the round of 16 after two draws (1-1 on aggregate) in the last Cup Winners' Cup ever. The season was ended in beauty as Genk won its first Belgian championship in May, afterwards manager Aimé Anthuenis signed to Anderlecht.

Genk subsequently played the UEFA Champions League in 1999-2000 but lost in the second qualifying round to NK Maribor. It saved its season when it won the Belgian Cup again to Standard this time, but ended the championship in 9th place. It then finished 11th the next season and it lost in the UEFA Cup second round to Werder Bremen after a win against FC Zürich. After these few bad years, Genk managed to win the championship once again in the season 2001-2002. In the season 2002-2003 they reached the Champions League groupstages for the first time in their history. They became 4th, but managed to impress their fans with draws against Real Madrid, AS Roma and AEK Athens.

In the 2006-07 season, Genk ended second after Anderlecht. The Limburgians had led almost the entire competition but lost the leadership to Anderlecht on the 28th day, after a loss on the field of Germinal Beerschot. The 2007-08 season proved a disaster, as Genk didn't even manage to finish in the top half of the division, ending only in a very disappointing tenth place.

At the end of the season Genk expressed their renewed ambition and so far they have signed Ronny Vangeneugden as their new head coach and they have already bought midfielder Daniel Tozser from AEK Athens, defender João Carlos from Lokeren and attacker Adam Nemec from MŠK Žilina. On July 1 2008, Genk celebrates his 20 th birthday. At that day, Genk also announced that they contracted Czech international Daniel Pudil from Slovan Liberec. The club disappointed again with only a 8th place at the end of the season, however they won the Belgian cup for the third time. Because of that, Genk will play in next season Europe League.

[edit] Honours

• Belgian First Division:
  • Winners (2): 1998-99, 2001-02
  • Runners-up (2): 1997-98, 2006-07
• Belgian Second Division:
  • Winners (1): 1975-76
  • Runners-up (2): 1986-87, 1995-96
• Belgian Second Division Final Round:
  • Winners (2): 1987, 1990
  • Runners-up (1): 1974
• Belgian Cup:
  • Winners (3): 1997-98, 1999-00, 2008-09

[edit] European record

As of December, 2008.

Competition	A	P	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Champions League	3	12	3	5	4	12	20
Cup Winners' Cup	1	6	3	3	0	16	3
UEFA Cup	2	8	4	1	3	15	15
Intertoto Cup	2	10	6	1	3	22	13

A = appearances, P = matches played, W = won, D = drawn, L = lost, GF = goals for, GA = goals against.

Season	Competition	Round		Club	Home	Away
1997	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 5		B36 Tórshavn		5-0
				Stabæk IF	4-3
				FC Dynamo Moscow		2-3
				Panachaiki	4-2
1998-99	Cup Winners' Cup	QUAL		Apolonia Fier	4-0	5-1
		1R		MSV Duisburg	5-0	1-1
		2R		Real Mallorca	1-1	0-0
1999-00	Champions League	2QR		NK Maribor	3-0	1-5
2000-01	UEFA Cup	1R		FC Zürich	2-0	2-1
		2R		Werder Bremen	2-5	1-4
2002-03	Champions League	3QR		Sparta Praha	2-0	2-4
		Group C - Preliminary		AEK Athens	0-0	1-1
				Real Madrid	1-1	0-6
				AS Roma	0-1	0-0
2004	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R		Marek Dupnitza	2-1	0-0
		3R		Borussia Dortmund	0-1	2-1
		Semifinals		União Leiria	0-0	0-2
2005-06	UEFA Cup	2QR		Liepajas Metalurgs	3-0	3-2
		1R		PFC Litex Lovech	0-1	2-2
2007-08	Champions League	2QR		FK Sarajevo	1-2	1-0

[edit] Current squad

As of 30 August 2009.

No. Position Player 1 GK Davino Verhulst 2 DF Dimitri Daeseleire 3 DF David Hubert 4 DF Torben Joneleit 5 DF Eric Matoukou 6 MF Ederson Tormena 7 MF Fabien Camus 8 MF Dániel Tőzsér 9 FW Moussa Koita 10 FW Elyaniv Barda 11 FW Istvan Bakx 14 MF Kevin De Bruyne 16 DF Anele Ngcongca

No. Position Player 17 FW Stein Huysegems 19 MF Thomas Buffel 20 MF Balázs Tóth 21 MF Dugary Ndabashinze 22 FW Maurizio Aquino 24 DF Timothy Durwael 25 GK Koen Casteels 26 GK László Köteles 27 DF Tiago Silva 28 GK Thibault Courtois 30 DF João Carlos 31 FW Marvin Ogunjimi 33 MF Daniel Pudil

[edit] Out on loan

No. Position Player DF Pieter Nys (to Fortuna Sittard) DF Sven Verdonck (to Fortuna Sittard) FW Jelle Vossen (to Cercle Brugge)

For recent transfers, see List of Belgian football transfers summer 2009.

[edit] Noted past players

• 1980s: Luc Nilis (1984-86) (K.F.C. Winterslag)

• 1990s: Carmel Busuttil, Krzysztof Bukalski, Branko Strupar, Souleymane Oulare, Thordur Gudjonsson, Besnik Hasi, Juha Reini, Bart Goor, Mike Origi, Marc Hendrikx, Philippe Clement, Ferenc Horváth, Jacky Peeters, Davy Oyen

• 2000s: Didier Zokora, Josip Skoko, Akram Roumani, Branko Strupar, Igor Tomašić , Bernd Thijs, Koen Daerden, Kevin Vandenbergh, Moumouni Dagano, Mirsad Bešlija, Sunday Oliseh, Orlando Engelaar, Wesley Sonck, Aaron Mokoena, Brian Priske, Steven Defour, Sébastien Pocognoli, Thomas Chatelle, Wouter Vrancken, Faris Haroun, Barak Yitzhaki, Logan Bailly, Tom Soetaers

[edit] Noted managers

• 1990s: Enver Alisic (?-1995), Aimé Anthuenis (1995-1999), Jos Heyligen (1999-2000), Johan Boskamp (2000)

• 2000s: Pierre Denier, caretaker (2001), Sef Vergoossen (2001-2003), Pierre Denier and Ronny Van Geneugden, caretakers (2003-2004), René Vandereycken (2004-2005), Hugo Broos (2005- Feb 2008), Ronny Van Geneugden (2008-Mar 2009), Hein Vanhaezebrouck (2009)

[edit] External links

• (English) (Dutch) KRC Genk Official Website
• (English) KRC Genk at UEFA.COM
• KRC Genk at EUFO.DE
• KRC Genk at Weltfussball.de
• KRC Genk at Playerhistory.com
• KRC Genk at Transfermarkt.de
• KRC Genk at Football Squads.co.uk
• KRC Genk at National Football Teams.com
• KRC Genk at Football Lineups.com
• (English) RC Genk XtraTime Fanpage
• (German) THOR WATERSCHEI Football-Blog

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