Standard captain Jelle Van Damme chats to Georges Leekens at a national team training camp. (copyright John Chapman)
Royal Antwerp’s new Sporting Director Luciano D’Onofrio – who ran Standard Liege for years – is engineering a move for Jelle Van Damme, who was briefly his captain at Standard. Van Damme is currently with LA Galaxy and his contract ends in December. He’s said to be keen to return to Belgium for family reasons. Van Damme is married to Kim Clijsters’ sister Elke.
D’Onofrio says he wants to be challenging for the title in five years. Given his close links to ex-Standard players, could it be that Steven Defour, Marouane Fellaini and Axel Witsel find their way to the Bosuil stadium? Stranger things have happened.