Below the zigzagging contrails that paint the blue Brussels sky, Christian Burgess is reflecting on the latest chapters of his extraordinary journey, those since joining Royale Union Saint‑Gilloise almost six years ago. At the time he felt that his career was at risk of stagnating, but after rummaging Wikipedia to get a handle on the club and learning of their big ambitions, it felt a leap of faith worth taking.
Even so, there is a detectable disbelief at how that decision led him to the Champions League and an unlikely reunion with Harry Kane, with whom he last duelled as an 18-year-old on trial at Tottenham more than 15 years ago. On Wednesday Union play at Bayern Munich in arguably the biggest match in their history, knowing a positive result would keep alive their chances of advancing to the knockout stage.
One episode from those days on Luxborough Lane in Chigwell, then Spurs’s training ground, sticks in Burgess’s memory. He was a sixth-form student searching for a route into the game, Kane a first-year scholar being readied for the first-team squad. “I was in the changing rooms when the kit man came in and asked him: ‘Do you want long sleeves? Under armour? Gloves?’” Burgess says. “Wow, that’s so big time. I was missing history and maths class.”
Burgess, rejected by Arsenal and West Ham as a boy, last season captained Union to their first Belgian title since 1935. At their training base on the perimeter of Brussels airport, it is clear the defender is enjoying life at a storied club, rooted in their diverse community, who were in the fourth tier in the 1980s.
The club are known for their liberal values and inclusive culture, underpinned by five pillars: integrity, commitment, courage, passion and humility. A banner that reads “LOVE FOOTBALL/HATE RACISM” has residency at the charming Stade Joseph Marien, three sides of which are enveloped by Parc Duden, the other a listed brick facade. Burgess lives nearby and cycles 10 minutes to the stadium when they train there. Yves, the club chef for the past four years, made Burgess apple pancakes for breakfast and caters for his vegan diet. “Our best transfer, by a mile,” Burgess says, smiling.
Munich represents the next stage of an unforgettable story. Last September, the month before his 34th birthday, Burgess made his Champions League debut in a 3-1 victory at PSV, also Union’s first game in the competition. “It was a moment of history for Union and a proud moment for myself. Hearing the anthem sent a shiver down my spine. And then I had to think: ‘OK, refocus, concentrate on your job.’ It would have been a completely unrealistic scenario if you put yourself in my mind five years ago, or even less.”
A decade ago Burgess was building his career in League Two with Portsmouth, after a season at Peterborough and a loan at Hartlepool, during which he also completed a history degree. At the beginning of 2016-17, he was part of a Pompey side that lost at Accrington, Morecambe and Yeovil, before an upturn in form paved the way for promotion to League One.
Unsurprisingly, there have been a few “surreal” moments: getting to grips with Antoine Griezmann, marking Marseille’s Pierre‑Emerick Aubameyang. The win at Galatasaray in November was memorable too, Union ending the Turkish club’s 33-game unbeaten home run. Ticket requests have gone through the roof; 18 family and friends will be in Munich.
A trip to Atlético Madrid prompted Burgess, who has played every minute in the competition this season, to break character and seek out the shirt of Julián Alvarez, a World Cup, Premier League and Champions League winner. “It’s not really me,” he says. “When you play bigger clubs with big players, the players of the smaller club have to wait outside their changing room because they have security, you have to beg a little bit, and I don’t like that. We don’t have security – anyone can walk into our changing room. I think if you play against each other, you’re equals on the pitch.”
Now Union are aiming to halt arguably the best team in Europe this season; Bayern have won 25 of their 28 matches, their sole defeat coming at Arsenal, and have scored 71 goals across 18 league matches, propelled by the Bundesliga’s runaway top scorer. “And I’ll definitely be asking Harry Kane for his shirt,” Burgess says. “What a career, captain of England. My country. Yeah, it will be mental. We need at least a point there to have an opportunity to qualify.”
Before Burgess joined Union the sporting director, Chris O’Loughlin, an Irishman who grew up in South Africa and has coached at Charlton and managed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, shared a presentation given to all new signings. “A little mashup of the history of Union, black and white videos from back in the day, including the anthem the fans sing,” Burgess says, launching into the chorus: “Bruxelles, Ma ville, Je t’aime, Je porte ton emblème … I just had a good feeling. And then it was: ‘Let’s do it, let’s go on an adventure.’”
It has been some ride for Burgess, who joined Union in the second division. They won promotion in his first season, returning to the top flight for the first time since 1973, and have since reached the latter stages of the Europa League and Conference League. Part of the initial sales pitch centred on the possibility of playing in Europe. “I thought it was a bit of a pipe dream,” the centre-back says.
“After promotion, we had a team meeting to discuss bonuses for the end of the next season and our then captain [Teddy Teuma] came in after speaking to the directors and said: ‘If we finish top six, it’s this.’ He finished his speech and I said: ‘What about if we just survive?’ He said there were no bonuses for avoiding relegation. ‘What do you mean? The whole goal was to be in the first division.’ And then we started winning games and I was like: ‘OK, forget about that, what is the top-six bonus again? We’ve had some amazing moments and it’s been an incredible journey.”
For Burgess, the move turned out to be bigger than football. “I have built a life out here,” he says, referencing his American-Belgian wife Jessica and their 18‑month‑old daughter, Mia Rose. “This is almost where I call home now and it’ll probably be our future.”
Burgess, who has applied for Belgian citizenship, embraced his surroundings from the moment he emerged from the Eurotunnel, his car crammed with belongings, and enrolled on a French language course. “Everyone used to take the piss out of how I’d say ‘merci’, because they’d say I was saying Messi. So then they’d be like: ‘Messi, Messi, Messi!’” These days he converses like a local, though he continues weekly lessons with a tutor.
At Portsmouth, Burgess threw himself into community initiatives. On one occasion, to celebrate VE Day, he helped deliver medical prescriptions in a military tank on Hayling Island. He continued to volunteer on arrival in mainland Europe, helping refugees in Brussels and France via the charity Care4Calais. This month, he has driven a campaign whereby every Union player and member of the coaching staff donates to the homelessness charity L’Îlot for every goal the team score in January. “We want to stop this injustice of people not having a basic human right,” Burgess says.
The Brighton owner, Tony Bloom, bought Union in 2018 but three years ago relinquished his majority shareholding to comply with Uefa’s multiclub rules, handing the reins to Alex Muzio, a longtime friend and business associate who rose through the ranks of Bloom’s Starlizard gambling consultancy company. Muzio remortgaged his house to buy controlling shares off Bloom, who has attended some of Union’s Champions League matches.
The £65.5m Bayern paid to sign Luis Díaz last summer comfortably eclipses Union’s annual budget of almost £50m. But Union reclaiming their tag as the best team in Belgium – they are top and pursuing back-to-back titles – has led to a shift in perceptions. “When we first came up, I think most of Belgium wanted us to do well: ‘Wow, this is such a great underdog story, this is like a Leicester City story.’ And now everybody’s a bit pissed off that we’re still there, that’s the truth. We’re now the bad guys: ‘OK, it was a nice story for a bit, but now stop interrupting Belgian football.’”
Union, like Brighton, have a reputation as masters of data-led recruitment, which is fuelled by Jamestown Analytics (an offshoot of Starlizard). Ross Sykes joined from Accrington, for whom he played against Burgess in 2019.
More recently they scoured Scandinavia to sign Besfort Zeneli (Elfsborg), Mamadou Barry (Tromsø) and Massiré Sylla (Lyn) and took Mateo Biondic from the German fourth-tier side Eintracht Trier. Noah Sadiki, a €1.4m buy from rivals Anderlecht in 2023, joined Sunderland in a €20m deal last summer. They also turned huge profits on Victor Boniface and Franjo Ivanovic, now of Bayer Leverkusen (although on loan at Werder Bremen) and Benfica respectively.
Promise David, a 6ft 5in Canada striker born to Nigerian parents, is expected to be the next major export. Nicknamed Tobi, a nod to his full name, the 24-year-old is the Belgian league’s leading goalscorer this season, though Union staff continue to challenge a player signed for €400,000 from the Estonian club Nömme Kalju 18 months ago; there are playful “missing” posters showing his face – designed to keep him grounded – dotted around their training ground: “Please if you see him, bring him to the gym ASAP!”
The rapid turnover of emerging talent is part of the model. Last weekend, with Burgess suspended for a victory against Mechelen, the average age of Union’s starting lineup was 23.6 and the 28-year-old defender Kevin Mac Allister, brother of the Liverpool midfielder Alexis, was the eldest in their XI. “I’m an anomaly,” Burgess says, breaking into a broad grin. “I’m still waiting for my big move … maybe if I have the game of my life against Bayern then Barcelona will come calling.”
