Union Saint-GilloiseIn May 2025, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise ended the longest title drought in European football history, winning the Belgian championship again after a 90-year wait, beating KAA Gent 3–1 in the decisive play-off match. Union's previous title had come in 1935.
The club was founded on 1 November 1897 by a group of teenagers from the Plaine du Sud neighbourhood of Saint-Gilles, a Brussels commune. Its first kit was black and white, borrowed from Racing Club de Bruxelles, but by 1898 Union had adopted the yellow and blue it still wears today, the colours of its home commune. Within its first decade the club had already become the most decorated team in the country: it won its first Belgian title in 1904 and had four championships by 1907. In 1912 it became the first club in Belgian football history to complete the league-and-cup double, and it went on to win the Belgian Cup twice more, in 1913 and 1914.
The peak of Union's dominance came between 1933 and 1935, when, led by captain Jules Pappaert, the team went 60 consecutive league matches unbeaten — a national record that still stands — while winning three championships in a row. In total, Union claimed eleven Belgian titles by 1935, a haul surpassed in the all-time standings only by Anderlecht and Club Brugge.
The post-war decades, however, brought a long decline: Union fell as far as the fourth division and repeatedly came close to bankruptcy. The turning point came in 2018, when the club was taken over by British businessman Tony Bloom, also the owner of Brighton & Hove Albion, together with Alex Muzio. Union returned to the top flight in 2021 after a 48-year absence and went on to challenge for the title in each of the following seasons, finishing as virtual champions until the 89th minute of the final matchday in 2023. In 2023–24 the club reached the Europa League quarter-finals, eliminated only by eventual finalists Bayer Leverkusen, before winning the Belgian Cup the following season.
Union plays its home matches at the compact Joseph Marien Stadium, set within Duden Park in the Forest district of Brussels. Opened in 1919 with a friendly against AC Milan, it now holds around 9,400 spectators, its art deco façade making it one of Belgian football's most distinctive grounds.
