2022–23 Belgian Pro League

Belgian Pro League 2022–23
Season information
Dates	22 July 2022–4 June 2023
Winners	Antwerp
Relegated	Oostende Zulte Waregem Seraing
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Antwerp Genk
Europa League	Union SG
Europa Conference League	Club Brugge Gent
Season statistics
Matches played	330
Goals scored	1,011
Top goalscorer	Hugo Cuypers (27 goals)
Biggest home win	Club Brugge 7–0 Eupen (23 April 2023)
Biggest away win	Zulte Waregem 5–5 Eupen (12 November 2022)
← 2021–22	2023–24 →

The 2022–23 Belgian Pro League (officially known as the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 120th season of top-tier football in Belgium.

Royal Antwerp were crowned league champions for the first time in 66 years after pipping Genk and Union St-Gilloise on the final day, the first occasion since 1999 that three clubs were still contending the title going in the final match. All three Championship chasers were in the virtual lead in the table at different stages across the final five minutes before Toby Alderweireld's title-clinching goal.

Genk's title-challenge was helped by a record-breaking 24 assists from Mike Trésor while Hugo Cuypers of Gent became the first Belgian winner of the Golden Boot for top-scorer since Romelu Lukaku in 2009-10.

Zulte Waregem, pipped for the title on the final day ten years earlier and subsequent Cup winners in 2017, were one of three sides relegated.

Format change

Originally, as decided in 2020, the clubs agreed to reduce the number of teams again to 16 following the 2021–22 season, as due to the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally no teams were relegated from the 2019–20 Belgian First Division A, which causing the league to temporarily expand to 18. This would mean that there would be three teams relegating from the 2021–22 Belgian First Division A with only one team promoted from the 2021–22 Belgian First Division B. However, on 14 June 2021, the clubs agreed to keep playing with 18 teams at the highest level up to (and including) the 2022–23 season, meaning that the 2021–22 Belgian First Division would continue the format of the previous season, with only one team relegating and the penultimate team playing a play-off match against the runner-up up the 2021–22 Belgian First Division B to avoid relegation. The title and Europa League playoffs remain shortened, with only the top four teams playing for the title and number 5 through 8 playing the Europa League playoffs. For the teams finishing in positions 9 through 16, the season ends immediately following the regular season. The request to keep playing with 18 teams at the highest level mainly came from the smaller teams which were already struggling following the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bigger clubs agreed to continue the current format but demanded that U23 teams be permanently added to the lower leagues. As such, from the 2022–23 season on, there will be U23 teams added to each of the second, third and fourth level of Belgian football, with the final standings of the 2021–22 U23 league used to determine which team started at which level.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Matricule	Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
35	Anderlecht !Anderlecht	Anderlecht, Brussels	Lotto Park	21,500
1	Antwerp !Antwerp	Antwerp	Bosuilstadion	16,144
12	Cercle Brugge !Cercle Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
22	Charleroi !Charleroi	Charleroi	Stade du Pays de Charleroi	14,000
3	Club Brugge !Club Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
4276	Eupen !Eupen	Eupen	Kehrwegstadion	08,363
322	Genk !Genk	Genk	Luminus Arena	24,956
7	Gent !Gent	Ghent	Ghelamco Arena	20,000
19	Kortrijk !Kortrijk	Kortrijk	Guldensporen Stadion	09,399
25	Mechelen !Mechelen	Mechelen	AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne	16,700
31	Oostende !Oostende	Ostend	Versluys Arena	08,432
18	Leuven !Oud-Heverlee Leuven	Leuven	Den Dreef	10,000
167	Seraing !Seraing	Seraing	Stade du Pairay	8,207
373	Sint-Truiden !Sint-Truiden	Sint-Truiden	Stayen	14,600
16	Standard !Standard Liège	Liège	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,023
10	Union SG !Union SG	Saint-Gilles, Brussels	Stade Joseph Marien	8,000
2024	Westerlo !Westerlo	Westerlo	Het Kuipje	8,035
5381	Zulte !Zulte Waregem	Waregem	Regenboogstadion	12,500

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Anderlecht	Felice Mazzù	Joma	DVV Insurance (home) Candriam (away)
Antwerp	Mark van Bommel	Jako	Ghelamco
Cercle Brugge	Dominik Thalhammer	Kappa	Napoleon Games
Charleroi	Edward Still	Kappa	Lotto
Club Brugge	Carl Hoefkens	Macron	Unibet
Eupen	Bernd Storck	Adidas	Qatar Airways
Genk	Wouter Vrancken	Nike	Beobank
Gent	Hein Vanhaezebrouck	Craft	VDK Bank
Kortrijk	Karim Belhocine	Jako	AGO Jobs & HR
Mechelen	Danny Buijs	Erreà	Telenet
OH Leuven	Marc Brys	Stanno	King Power
Oostende	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Kipsta	Star Casino
Seraing	José Jeunechamps	Kappa	Star Casino
Sint-Truiden	Bernd Hollerbach	Macron	DMM.com
Standard Liège	position vacant	Adidas	VOO
Union SG	position vacant	Le Coq Sportif	Lotto
Westerlo	Jonas De Roeck	Saller	Soudal
Zulte-Waregem	Mbaye Leye	Patrick	Napoleon Games

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Anderlecht	Vincent Kompany	Mutual consent	End of 2021–22 season	Pre-season	Felice Mazzù	31 May 2022
Antwerp	Brian Priske	Sacked			Mark van Bommel	26 May 2022
Club Brugge	Alfred Schreuder	Signed for Ajax			Carl Hoefkens	25 May 2022
Eupen	Michael Valkanis	End of contract			Bernd Storck	25 May 2022
Genk	Bernd Storck	Mutual consent			Wouter Vrancken	28 May 2022
Mechelen	Wouter Vrancken	Signed for Genk			Danny Buijs	1 June 2022
Seraing	Jean-Louis Garcia	Resigned			José Jeunechamps	20 May 2022
Standard Liège	Luka Elsner	Sacked			Ronny Deila	13 June 2022
Union SG	Felice Mazzù	Signed for Anderlecht			Karel Geraerts	9 June 2022
Zulte Waregem	Davy De fauw & Timmy Simons	Replaced			Mbaye Leye	17 May 2022
Kortrijk	Karim Belhocine	Sacked	29 August 2022	17th	Adnan Čustović	1 September 2022
Cercle Brugge	Dominik Thalhammer	Replaced	19 September 2022		Miron Muslic	19 September 2022
Mechelen	Danny Buijs	Sacked	17 October 2022	13th	Steven Defour	17 October 2022
Charleroi	Edward Still		22 October 2022	11th	Frank Defays (caretaker)	28 November 2022
Eupen	Bernd Storck		23 October 2022	14th	Kristoffer Andersen and Mario Kohnen (caretakers)
Anderlecht	Felice Mazzù		24 October 2022	12th	Robin Veldman (caretaker)	24 October 2022
Oostende	Yves Vanderhaeghe		31 October 2022	14th	Dominik Thalhammer
Seraing	José Jeunechamps		31 October 2022	17th	Jean-Sébastien Legros (caretaker)
Kortrijk	Adnan Čustović		14 November 2022		Bernd Storck	18 November 2022
Eupen	Kristoffer Andersen and Mario Kohnen	End of caretaker spell	24 November 2022	15th	Edward Still	24 November 2022
Charleroi	Frank Defays		28 November 2022	12th	Felice Mazzù	28 November 2022
Anderlecht	Robin Veldman		2 December 2022	11th	Brian Riemer	2 December 2022
Club Brugge	Carl Hoefkens	Sacked	28 December 2022	4th	Scott Parker	31 December 2022
	Scott Parker		8 March 2023		Rik De Mil (caretaker)	8 March 2023
Zulte Waregem	Mbaye Leye		15 March 2023	17th	Frederik D’Hollander & Davy De fauw	15 March 2023
Standard Liège	Ronny Deila	Signed for Club Brugge	25 May 2023	7th	Geoffrey Valenne (caretaker)	25 May 2023

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Genk (J)	34	23	6	5	78	37	+41	75	Qualification for the Europa Conference League and Play-offs I
2	Union SG	34	23	6	5	70	41	+29	75	Qualification for the Play-offs I
3	Antwerp (C)	34	22	6	6	59	26	+33	72
4	Club Brugge	34	16	11	7	61	36	+25	59
5	Gent (U)	34	16	8	10	64	38	+26	56	Qualification for the Play-offs II
6	Standard Liège	34	16	7	11	58	45	+13	55
7	Westerlo	34	14	9	11	61	53	+8	51
8	Cercle Brugge	34	13	11	10	50	46	+4	50
9	Charleroi	34	14	6	14	45	52	−7	48
10	OH Leuven	34	13	9	12	56	48	+8	48
11	Anderlecht	34	13	7	14	49	46	+3	46
12	Sint-Truiden	34	11	9	14	37	40	−3	42
13	Mechelen	34	11	7	16	49	63	−14	40
14	Kortrijk	34	8	7	19	37	61	−24	31
15	Eupen	34	7	7	20	40	75	−35	28
16	Oostende (R)	34	7	6	21	37	76	−39	27	Relegation to Challenger Pro League
17	Zulte Waregem (R)	34	6	9	19	50	78	−28	27
18	Seraing (R)	34	5	5	24	28	68	−40	20

Source: Jupiler Pro League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away matches won; 6) Away goal difference; 7) Away goals scored; 8) Play-off.
(C) Play-off I winner; (J) Regular season winner; (R) Relegated; (U) Play-off II winner

Results

Home \ Away	GNK	USG	ANT	CLU	GNT	STA	WES	CER	CHA	OHL	AND	STR	MEC	KVK	EUP	OOS	ZWA	SER
Genk		1–2	0–1	3–1	1–0	3–1	6–1	2–1	4–1	2–1	5–2	0–0	3–1	2–1	4–2	3–0	1–0	2–0
Union SG	1–2		2–0	2–2	2–0	2–4	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	2–1	2–1	2–1	3–0	4–0	2–1
Antwerp	1–3	4–2		0–0	2–0	4–1	3–0	2–1	0–1	4–2	0–0	2–0	5–0	1–0	2–0	3–0	1–0	2–1
Club Brugge	3–2	1–1	2–2		2–0	2–0	0–2	4–0	2–2	1–1	1–1	3–0	3–0	2–1	7–0	4–2	1–1	2–0
Gent	2–3	1–1	1–2	2–0		0–0	2–1	3–4	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	3–0	2–1	3–0	1–2	2–0	2–1
Standard Liège	2–0	2–3	3–0	3–0	2–2		2–0	2–0	3–1	1–3	5–0 FF	1–1	2–0	0–2	3–1	1–0	2–2	0–2
Westerlo	2–3	4–2	3–3	0–0	3–3	4–2		2–0	2–3	1–2	2–1	2–3	2–0	3–1	0–1	6–0	2–0	2–2
Cercle Brugge	1–1	1–1	0–2	2–2	3–2	1–1	0–1		4–1	2–1	1–0	3–1	0–0	2–0	5–1	2–2	1–1	3–1
Charleroi	2–2	0–1	1–0	1–3	2–1	0–1	2–3	2–1		0–1	0–1	1–0	0–5 FF	2–2	3–1	1–3	3–2	3–0
OH Leuven	0–1	0–3	1–1	0–3	1–1	3–2	2–0	0–0	3–2		0–2	1–1	4–1	2–3	1–1	2–1	4–2	5–0
Anderlecht	0–2	1–3	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–2	0–0	2–0	0–1	2–2		3–1	2–3	4–1	4–2	2–0	2–3	3–1
Sint-Truiden	2–2	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–3	1–2	0–1	0–1	2–1	0–0	0–3		3–1	1–0	0–1	5–0	2–0	2–1
Mechelen	2–2	3–0	0–2	0–3	1–1	2–0	5–4	1–1	2–2	0–0	1–3	1–0		3–2	2–1	2–1	2–2	2–3
Kortrijk	1–0	2–4	2–1	1–0	0–4	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–2	2–2	0–0	1–4		0–0	2–2	1–3	3–2
Eupen	1–1	1–2	0–1	2–1	0–4	2–0	1–1	2–2	1–2	4–2	0–1	0–2	2–1	0–1		4–4	1–5	1–3
Oostende	1–2	1–6	0–3	3–0	1–3	1–3	1–2	1–2	0–0	0–4	0–2	0–1	2–1	3–1	1–0		2–1	1–2
Zulte Waregem	1–4	1–3	0–2	1–2	2–6	0–3	1–1	2–3	1–3	2–5	3–2	0–3	2–0	3–3	5–5	1–1		2–0
Seraing	0–4	1–2	0–2	0–2	0–5	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	2–1	0–1	1–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–1	1–1

Source: Kalender eerste klasse A 2022-23
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Play-offs

Play-off I

Points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up in the event of half-points) before the start of the playoff. Genk and Union SG, therefore, started on 38 points, Antwerp on 36, and Club Brugge on 30. Only Antwerp did not see their points rounded up, hence in case of ties they were always ranked above the other teams. Any other ties were broken by regular season finishing order (Genk, then Union SG, then Club Brugge).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		ANT	GNK	USG	CLU
1	Antwerp (C)	6	3	2	1	10	8	+2	47	Qualification for the Champions League play-off round		—	2–1	1–1	3–2
2	Genk (K)	6	2	2	2	10	10	0	46	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round		2–2	—	1–1	3–1
3	Union SG	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	46	Qualification for the Europa League play-off round		0–2	3–0	—	1–3
4	Club Brugge	6	2	0	4	10	12	−2	36	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round		2–0	1–3	1–2	—

Source: Jupiler Pro League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) Regular season finishing position.
(C) Champion; (K) Regular season winner

Play-off II

Points obtained during the regular season will be halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. Gent and Standard started on 28 points, Westerlo on 26, and Cercle Brugge on 25. As the points of Standard and Westerlo were rounded up, in case of ties they would always be ranked below the team (or teams) they are tied with. The deciding factor after that would be finishing position in the regular season.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		GNT	CER	STA	WES
1	Gent (Q, F)	6	5	1	0	17	6	+11	44	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round		—	2–2	3–1	3–1
2	Cercle Brugge	6	3	2	1	13	9	+4	36			0–4	—	0–0	2–0
3	Standard Liège	6	0	2	4	4	14	−10	30			1–2	0–4	—	2–2
4	Westerlo	6	1	1	4	10	15	−5	30			1–3	3–5	3–0	—

Source: Jupiler Pro League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) Regular season finishing position.
(F) Play-off II winner; (Q) Qualified to the phase indicated

Season statistics

Prizes awarded cover all 40 rounds of the season, i.e. the 34 rounds of regular season football plus the six weeks of Champions Play-Offs and Europe Play-Offs.

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Hugo Cuypers	Gent	27
2	Ayase Ueda	Cercle Brugge	22
3	Gianni Bruno	Sint-Truiden	18
	Vincent Janssen	Antwerp
5	Joseph Paintsil	Genk	17
6	Paul Onuachu	Genk	16
7	Gift Orban	Gent	15
8	Hans Vanaken	Club Brugge	14
9	Nene Dorgeles	Westerlo	13
	Mario González	OH Leuven
	Ferran Jutglà	Club Brugge

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean Sheets
1	Jean Butez	Antwerp	20
2	Simon Mignolet	Club Brugge	14
3	Arnaud Bodart	Standard Liège	12
4	Paul Nardi	Gent	11
5	Sinan Bolat	Westerlo	10
6	Radosław Majecki	Cercle Brugge	9
	Anthony Moris	Union St Gilloise
8	Valentin Cojocaru	OH Leuven	8
	Hervé Koffi	Charleroi
	Daniel Schmidt	Sint-Truiden
	Maarten Vandevoordt	Genk
	Bart Verbruggen	Anderlecht

Top assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Mike Trésor	Genk	24*
2	Teddy Teuma	Union SG	12
3	Joseph Paintsil	Genk	11
4	Simon Adingra	Union SG	9
5	Kévin Denkey	Cercle Brugge	8
	Geoffry Hairemans	Mechelen
	Sven Kums	Gent
	Adem Zorgane	Charleroi
	Victor Boniface	Union SG
	Noa Lang	Club Brugge

• Mike Tresor's tally of 24 is a new Pro League assists record.

Hat-tricks

Player	Club	Against	Result	Date
Dino Hotić	Cercle Brugge	Gent	4–3 (A)	02022-10-02-2 October 2022
Mario González	OH Leuven	Zulte Waregem	5–2 (A)	02022-10-08-8 October 2022
Kévin Denkey	Cercle Brugge	Eupen	5–1 (H)	02022-10-15-15 October 2022
Paul Onuachu4	Genk	Charleroi	4–1 (H)	02022-11-04-4 November 2022
Gift Orban4	Gent	Zulte Waregem	6–2 (A)	02023-03-12-12 March 2023
Zinho Gano	Zulte Waregem	Eupen	5–1 (A)	02023-04-15-15 April 2023
Ferran Jutglà	Club Brugge	Eupen	7–0 (H)	02023-04-23-23 April 2023
Nene Dorgeles	Westerlo	Cercle Brugge	3–5 (H)	02023-05-07-7 May 2023
Gift Orban4	Gent	Cercle Brugge	4–0 (A)	02023-05-13-13 May 2023
Hugo Cuypers	Gent	Standard Liege	3–1 (H)	02023-06-03-3 June 2023

• ⁴ Player scored four goals.

External links

• Jupiler Pro League official website

2022–23 in Belgian football
Domestic leagues
Pro League · Challenger Pro League · National Division 1 · Division 2 · Division 3
Domestic cups
Belgian Cup (Final) · Super Cup
European competitions
Champions League (Final) · Europa League (Final)
2021-22                                                        2023-24