Mitrovic (Besiktas, now Brugge)
And he's been very solid. We had some injuries when he arrived so he had to play right away, scored in his first game and hasn't been out of the starting line up since. Good player.
Anyway, today was the final day of the regular season in the Belgian League. Even though all the big teams struggled mightily in the first half of the season, every one of them eventually made it to the Championship playoff. Club Brugge, Anderlecht, Gent and surprising Charleroi were already in, both Genk and Standard punched their ticket today.
Plenty of drama in the relegation battle as well. KV Mechelen, one of the biggest historical clubs in Belgian football are going down after a hugely disappointing season, they lose out to small club Eupen on goal differential. Eupen had to win big today, they hadn't won a game by a 2 goal margin (or better) all season long and now they win 4-0 with some questionnable goals to say the least
Also, Eupen are an affiliate of the Qatar Aspire Academy, and the team they beat (Mouscron) are owned (well, not officially, but through shady constructions) by Israeli football agent Pina Zahavi. And yesterday, in the 2nd division Championship game, Cercle Brugge gained promotion to the First Division. Another small clubs that looked to be on their way to bankrupcy until Monaco owner Vasilyev bought them up last year, brought in 25 new players and now they're basically the Monaco B team, playing in the Belgian League. The team they beat out for promotion? Another historically big name in Belgian football, Beerschot, an Antwerp based club.
Even Anderlecht almost ended up in the hands of Alisher Usmanov this year when the club was put up for sale, luckily they were sold to a Belgian businessman.