K.R.C. Genk

Racing Genk
	logo
Full name	Koninklijke Racing ; Club Genk
Founded	1923 (creation); July 1, 1988 (merge)
Ground	Cristal Arena; (since 2007, before Fenix Stadion), Genk
Capacity	25,604
Chairman	Harry Lemmens
Manager	Ronny Van Geneugden
League	Belgian First Division
2007-08	Belgian First Division, 10th
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 as Racing Genk often qualifies for European competitions. Also, it won the championship and the cup twice since 1998. The club has been in the first division since the 1996-97 season. The supporters of Genk are known to be very faithful.^[who?]

History

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.

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.

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.

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	BEL	Davino Verhulst
3	DF	BEL	David Hubert
5	DF	CMR	Eric Matoukou
6	MF	BEL	Wim De Decker
8	MF	BDI	Dugary Ndabashinze
9	FW	CRO	Ivan Bošnjak
10	MF	BEL	Tom Soetaers (vice-captain)
11	MF	BRA	Alex Da Silva
12	DF	BEL	Dimitri Daeseleire
15	DF	BRA	Tiago da Silva dos Santos
16	DF	RSA	Anele Ngcongca
17	FW	BEL	Christian Benteke
18	FW	ISR	Elyaniv Barda
19	FW	BEL	Jelle Vossen


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
20	MF	HUN	Balázs Tóth
21	FW	BEL	Marvin Ogunjimi
22	DF	FRA	Jean-Philippe Caillet
23	DF	BEL	Hans Cornelis (captain)
24	DF	BEL	Pieter Nys
25	MF	BEL	Robin Henkens
26	GK	BEL	Logan Bailly
27	GK	BEL	Sinan Bolat
29	FW	CRO	Goran Ljubojević
30	DF	BRA	João Carlos
32	FW	SVK	Adam Nemec
33	DF	CZE	Daniel Pudil
88	MF	HUN	Dániel Tőzsér
--	FW	BEL	Kevin De Bruyne

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 (2): 1997-98, 1999-2000