The club was founded in 2004 under the name Futsal Project Halle-Gooik. It was then a futsal club based in Halle. In 2022, the club joined RSC Anderlecht.[2] At that time, the team was already a regular participant in the UEFA Futsal Champions League, and it had been in the top-10 of the UEFA Futsal Club Ranking continuously for the previous years.[3]
History
First stage of the club
The club was founded in April 2004 under the name Gooik-Neigem ZVC and from the 2004–05 season, it played in the fourth Provincial (amateur) series of the RBFA futsal competition.[4] The team's outfit consisted of light blue and white colours.[5] The first season was successfully concluded in second place and promotion to the third Provincial Division was enforced. The following season a second place was also achieved and the club was promoted again. In the 2007–08 season a stunt was made in the Belgian Cup and the club managed to advance to the 1/8 finals. In the second Provincial Division, the club managed to achieve a second place. This result was equaled in the following season and promotion to the first Provincial Division was enforced.[6] There a third place was conquered in the final ranking in the 2009–10 season and the transition was made to the third National Division. Within a few seasons, the club had managed to reach the national series from the lowest division.[7]
National series
In its first season in the national series, Gooik-Neigem immediately became champions and thus secured promotion to the second National Division.[8] Tim Vergauwen was then hired as coach and the Molenbos sports hall in Zellik became the new home base.[6] In the following season, the club achieved second place in the final standings of the second National Division. For the 2012–13 season, Frank Luypaert was hired as coach and the core was expanded with Mustapha Harram, Marco Ferrian, Antoine Mageren and, from the new year, with internationals Rodigro Zico and Jonathan Neukermans.[9] The club managed to remain undefeated for an entire competition year and became champions. In the Belgian Cup, the club reached the semi-finals.[10]
Highest level
In the 2013–14 season, the club played in the first National Division and immediately managed to take third place in the final standings. In the Belgian Cup, the club reached the semi-finals. At the end of the season, internationals Omar Rahou, Valentin Dujacquier, Karim Chaibai and Reda Dahbi joined the club. The name was also changed to Futsal Project Halle-Gooik and the club moved to the top sports hall De Bres in Halle.[4]
Halle-Gooik crest
In the following season, the club managed to win both the National title and the Belgian Cup.[11] A new coach was also appointed, André Vanderlei.[12] The club was again strengthened, this time with Ahmed Sababti, Omar Zougghagi, Leo Carello Aleixo and Felipe Manfroi.[13] In the 2015–16 season, Halle-Gooik managed to win the double again. The team was allowed to participate in the UEFA Futsal Cup for the first time. There, they immediately reached the Elite round, after finishing second in a group with Latvia's Nikars Riga, Czech FK Chrudim and Greece's Athína '90 in the Main round.[14] In the Elite round, the club faced Kazakhstan's Tulpar Karagandy, Italian Pescara Calcio a 5 and Macedonia's Zelezarec Skopje. The club also won the BeNeCup, after Dutch FCK De Hommel withdrew from the return match in Halle.[15] At the end of the season, Massimiliano Bellarte was appointed coach and players included Marco Zaramello, Gabriel Gréllo, Fernando Leitão and Thiago Bissoni.[16]
Halle-Gooik won its third consecutive national title in the 2016–17 season and was a losing finalist in the Belgian Cup against Gelko Hasselt.[17] The club also won the BeNeCup against FT Antwerp, after having eliminated Dutch side ZVV 'T Knooppunt Amsterdam in the semi-finals.[18] In the UEFA Futsal Cup, the club finished in third place in the Main round in a group with Italian side Real Rieti, Portuguese side Sporting CP and Bosnian side Centar Sarajevo.[19] A women's team was also launched in September 2017, namely FP Halle-Gooik Girls.[20] The first match took place in October of the same year against Lasne-Ohain. In addition, Juan Francisco Fuentes Zamora was appointed head coach of the men's team and Jacky Munaron as goalkeeper coach.[21] The group of players was strengthened with Tiago De Bail and Gonzalez Galan. In the 2017–18 season, the men's team won the double again[22] and qualified for the elite round of the UEFA Futsal Cup after winning the group in the Main rounds in a pool with Swiss Futsal Minerva, German Jahn Regensburg and Finnish Sievi Futsal.[23] In the Elite round, the club finished second in its group, which consisted of Portuguese Sporting CP, Russian ISK Dina Moskva and Croatian Nacional Zagreb FC.[24] In the 2018–19 season, Halle-Gooik managed to win the Belgian title for the fifth time in a row.[25] Although they reached the Elite round, the results of the (renamed) UEFA Futsal Champions League were disappointing.[26]
They did not participate in the 2020–21 UEFA Futsal Champions League. Futsal Team Charleroi won the title the year before in the 2019–20 season, which was shortened by the Corona pandemic.[27] In 2021–22, FP Halle-Gooik was crowned Belgian champion again, again after being knocked out in the Elite round of the Futsal Champions League.[28]
At the end of March 2022, FP Halle-Gooik merged with the football club RSC Anderlecht. From the 2022–23 season they started to play under the name RSCA Futsal, in purple and white colours. The Alfasun Indoor Arena in Roosdaal became their new home base.[29]
Players saluting the supporters after a 2023 game
In the 2022–23 season, the team reached the Final Four of the Futsal Champions League for the first time, after eliminating FC Barcelona, among others.[30] In April, they won the Belgian Cup after a 10–3 victory in the final against R.E. Herentals. And in June, the club was able to win the Belgian championship. In 26 league matches, RSCA Futsal managed to score 204 goals and conceded only 54 goals.[31] Both trophies were also won the following season.[32]
In January 2024, RSCA Futsal was nominated for the prestigious Futsalplanet Awards, as one of the ten best men's clubs in the world.[33]
The Belgian Cup is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed to partake. As of 1964, the Belgian Cup has been organised annually. Since the 2015–16 edition, the Belgian Cup is called the Croky Cup, for sponsorship purposes. The final traditionally takes place at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels.
Paul Guillaume van Himst is a Belgian former football player and a football manager who played as a forward, most notably for R.S.C. Anderlecht. Regarded as Anderlecht's ultimate club icon, Van Himst holds the record of four Belgian Golden Shoe awards and was named best "Belgian footballer of the twentieth century".
Jacques "Jacky" Munaron is a Belgian former football goalkeeper and the goalkeeper coach of FP Halle-Gooik since 2017.
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Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSCAnderlecht or RSCA, is a Belgian professional football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Division A and is the most successful Belgian football team in European competitions, with five trophies, as well as in the Belgian domestic league, with 34 championship wins. They have also won nine Belgian Cups and hold the record for most consecutive Belgian championship titles, winning five between the 1963–64 and 1967–68 seasons.
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Fernando Gomes Leitão is a Brazilian born Portuguese former futsal player who played as a pivot for different European teams, mainly for Sporting CP, Acqua e Sapone, Halle-Gooik and FC Litija and the Portugal national team.
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Gabriel "Gréllo" d'Angelo, is a Brazilian-born Belgian futsal player who plays for RSC Anderlecht Futsal and the Belgian national futsal team.
Cainan de Matos, known simply as Cainan, is a Brazilian-Italian futsal player who plays for RSC Anderlecht Futsal in the Belgian Futsal Division 1, and the Italian national futsal team.
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