The Brussels village Ganshoren, which was a part of Flanders until 1954, has seen quite some amazing football history. A long and rich history filled with a hell of a lot of changes. Get ready for an interesting story in a rural village near the capital of Belgium.
Football in Ganshoren, where Pierre Kompany (once a football player and father of Vincent Kompany) is the mayor, started in 1913 already. Crossing Club Ganshoren existed for one year before they joined the Belgian FA in 1914. Sadly enough, one year later it was all over as their pitch was taken to grow vegetables due to the famine of WWI. The team itself also stopped playing then.
There was a re-start in 1921, but this time as Football Club Ganshoren. Now it took three years before they joined the Belgian FA. Upon joining, they changed their name into Crossing FC Ganshoren and received matricule number 451. Throughout the years FC Ganshoren went up the leagues straight to the national divisions. Mainly third and fourth division. The first time in these national divisions was in 1942, four years after having received the royal title.
But then something drastic happened. In 1959, FC Ganshoren would move away from Ganshoren to the neighbouring Molenbeek and become Royal Crossing Club Molenbeek. Hailing from Molenbeek, they would continue their way to the top, all the way to first division. After a merger with Royal Cercle Sportif de Schaerbeek, the matricule number of FC Ganshoren would disappear. The club from Schaerbeek would drop down the leagues afterwards, merge with and move to Elewijt.
Ganshoren was left behind empty handed. Only four years after FC Ganshoren's move to Molenbeek, a new team would arise when Red Star Ganshoren Football Club was created. Sadly enough, the successes weren't the same. The newborn club always stayed in the lowest regional leagues. In 1970, Red Star ceased to exist. That same year, a project started as Football Club Ganshoren. They played the Flemish league, but in 1971 they officially became FC Ganshoren and joined the Belgian FA.
For almost 30 years FC Ganshoren's results would be so so in the regional leagues. But in 1997 an amazing adventure started. That year they were in the fourth and lowest regional league. Slowly Ganshoren climbed the leagues and in 2008 the Green Boys from Brussels found themselves in the top regional league. Since 2011, they can officially call themselves the true successors of the old Crossing as they promoted to the national leagues for the very first time.
And still it wasn't over as things got even better since. Right now they're in the second national league, which is the fourth level in Belgium. And the results aren't too bad either. Especially when you see what names have come from their youth departments. Cédric Ciza (youth international for Belgium)), Jason Denayer (Red Devil), the late Junior Malanda, Sébestian Dufoor/Benjamin Mokulu/Nicolas Timmermans (all first division players) and Emilio Ferrera. Ferrera started in the youth teams of Crossing Schaerbeek (the result of the original Ganshoren) and ended his playing career at FC Ganshoren. He also started his training career there.
If you want to enjoy our articles in Dutch, you can read them here.