Sebbe Heyrardins

Sebbe Gheerardyns is a product of the Cercle Brugge academy, joining the club's youth system in 2012 after starting out at KSV Maldegem. He worked his way through the ranks entirely at Cercle, without ever needing a transfer fee to advance, and signed his first professional contract in February 2024. His path to the first team ran through Jong Cercle, the club's reserve side, where he made his senior debut in the Tweede Afdeling in May 2023. The following season proved decisive: across 26 appearances for Jong Cercle he scored four goals and played his part in the club's promotion from the Second National to the First National Division, a campaign that included a 1–0 win over Jong KV Mechelen in the promotion play-off.

That form was enough to earn him a place in the first-team picture, and Gheerardyns made his official debut for Cercle Brugge in the UEFA Conference League against Víkingur Reykjavík in October 2024, stepping straight from reserve football onto a European stage.

Gheerardyns has built his career so far on continuity rather than a single breakthrough moment: steady progress through the academy, a full season of regular football with the reserves, and then integration into the senior squad without a move away from the club that raised him. He has not yet collected individual honours or first-team silverware, but the promotion with Jong Cercle remains the clearest marker of what he achieved before his step up.