Gent

Before anyone in Ghent organised a football match, there was a gymnastics society, active in the city from 1864 and built around exercises that had nothing to do with a ball. Football only entered the picture on 31 October 1900, when members split off a section under the name Association Athlétique La Gantoise — the date the club now marks as its founding, distinct from the older body it grew out of.

The team plays at Planet Group Arena, a 20,185-seat ground that carried the name Ghelamco Arena until 2024. Supporters call the side the Buffalos, a nickname that traces back to a visit by Buffalo Bill's travelling show to the city in the early 1900s rather than to anything on the pitch.

Gent has never been a fixture at the top of Belgian football. The club won the league only once, in 2014/15, and added the Belgian Super Cup that same year. The Belgian Cup has come more often — 1964, 1984, 2010 and 2022 — spread across six decades rather than clustered in one era. Club Brugge supplies the fixture that matters most, a derby known locally as the Battle of Flanders; a second, quieter rivalry runs against Racing Gent.

Jonathan David came through the Gent academy, finished the 2019/20 season as the Belgian league's top scorer, and moved on to Lille for €27m. Ghent still points to him first when the conversation turns to who came out of the place.