Sporting Charleroi

Full name	Royal Charleroi Sporting Club
Nickname(s)	Les Zèbres (The Zebras), Les Carolos
Founded	1 January 1904; 120 years ago (1904-01-01)
Ground	Stade du Pays de Charleroi
Capacity	15,000[1]
Chairman	Fabien Debecq[2]
Managing Director	Mehdi Bayat
Head coach	Rik De Mil
League	Belgian Pro League
2023–24	Belgian Pro League, 13th of 16
Website	www.sporting-charleroi.be
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Royal Charleroi Sporting Club, often simply known as Charleroi or Sporting Charleroi, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the Belgian Pro League. Their current spell at the highest level in Belgian football started in the 2012–13 season. Charleroi was founded in 1904 and they first reached the first division in 1947–48. Their highest finish was runner-up in the 1968–69 season. They have also twice reached the Belgian Cup final, losing in 1977–78 to Beveren and in 1992–93 to Standard Liège.

Sporting Charleroi have a long-standing rivalry with their crosstown rival ROC de Charleroi-Marchienne, currently playing in the third division. Charleroi play their home matches at the Stade du Pays de Charleroi, which was refurbished for the UEFA Euro 2000. The stadium hosted 3 group stage games in the Euro 2000 among which the 1–0 victory of England against Germany. Charleroi have been recruiting several French players in recent years, including Michaël Ciani, Cyril Théréau and goalkeeper Bertrand Laquait.

Charleroi Sporting Club was founded in 1904 and they received the matricule n°22. Twenty years after their foundation, they qualified to play in the Promotion (then the second level in Belgian football) and in 1929, the club changed its name to Royal Charleroi Sporting Club. Rivals from Olympic Charleroi were playing in the first division in the late 1930s and the 1940s, while Sporting Charleroi was playing one level down, until they promoted in 1947. In 1949, Sporting Charleroi finished 4th (2 points behind Standard Liège) whereas Olympic Charleroi was 14th. But Olympic took the lead again until 1955 and their relegation to the second division. At the end of the 1956–57 season, Olympic Charleroi had promoted to the first division but Sporting Charleroi finished last in the first division and was thus relegated to the second division. A spell of 9 seasons in the second division followed and in 1966–67 Sporting Charleroi was back at the top level. They finished at the second place in 1968–69 5 points behind Standard Liège but within two years they were relegated again.

In 1974 the first division was changing from 16 to 20 teams and Sporting Charleroi was chosen to play at the top level. Olympic Charleroi promoted too as they had won the second division right before but they remained at the top level for just one season. Sporting underwent a new relegation in 1979–80 (17th on 18) but was back five years later. Their best result since then in the first division is a 4th place in 1993–94. In September 2005, the G-14 took FIFA to court over the eight-month injury incurred by Abdelmajid Oulmers whilst on international duty with Morocco.

The colours of Charleroi are black and white with a shirt generally striped, which led to the team being nicknamed The Zebras.

The actual ground was baptized in 1939 with a match Sporting-Union du Centre and it was located near the coal mine named Mambourg. In 1985 the stadium was slightly modernized as the club had qualified for the first division. It was then heavily renewed in the late 1990s in view of the 2000 European Football Championship. The name changed on 24 May 1999 from Stade du Mambourg to Stade du Pays de Charleroi. During the tournament, the full capacity of the stadium was up to 30,000 seats. The Stade du Pays de Charleroi hosted notably the match between Germany and England. The highest stand was eventually reduced and the capacity is now 15,000.^[3]

• Belgian First Division
  • Runners-up: 1968–69
• Belgian Second Division
  • Winners: 1946–47, 2011–12
  • Runners-up: 1965–66
• Belgian Second Division play-offs
  • Winners: 1985
• Belgian Cup
  • Runners-up: 1977–78, 1992–93

Correct as of May 2016

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1969–70	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1R	Zagreb	2–1	3–1	5–2
		2R	FC Rouen	3–1	0–2	3–3(a)
1994–95	UEFA Cup	1R	Rapid București	2–1	0–2	2–3
1995	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 10	Beitar Jerusalem	—	1–0	3rd
			Bursaspor	0–2	—
			FC Košice	—	2–3
			Wimbledon	3–0	—
1996	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 4	Silkeborg IF	2–4	—	3rd
			Conwy United	—	0–0
			Zagłębie Lubin	0–0	—
			SV Ried	—	3–1
2005	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R	Tampere United	0–0	0–1	0–1
2015–16	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Beitar Jerusalem	5–1	4–1	9–2
		3Q	Zorya Luhansk	0–2	0–3	0–5
2020–21	UEFA Europa League	3Q	Partizan	2–1 (aet)	—	—
		PO	Lech Poznań	1–2	—	—

As of 6 September 2024^[4]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 4 DF  SYR Aiham Ousou (on loan from Slavia Prague) 5 MF  FRA Etienne Camara 6 MF  ALG Adem Zorgane (captain) 7 FW  BEL Isaac Mbenza 8 MF  CIV Parfait Guiagon 9 FW  PLE Oday Dabbagh 15 DF  NOR Vetle Dragsnes 17 MF  BEL Antoine Bernier 18 MF  BEL Daan Heymans 19 FW  SRB Nikola Štulić 21 DF  CYP Stelios Andreou 22 MF  ALG Yassine Titraoui 24 DF  BEL Mardochee Nzita

No. Pos. Nation Player 28 FW  GHA Raymond Asante (on loan from Udinese) 29 DF  SVN Žan Rogelj 30 GK  CIV Mohamed Koné 33 GK  FRA Théo Defourny 55 GK  BEL Martin Delavallée 56 MF  BEL Amine Boukamir 60 GK  BEL Nicolas Closset 66 MF  BEL Noam Mayoka-Tika 70 MF  FRA Alexis Flips (on loan from Anderlecht) 80 FW  BEL Youssuf Sylla 95 DF  FRA Cheick Keita 98 DF  FRA Jeremy Petris 99 FW  FRA Grejohn Kyei (on loan from Standard Liège)

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  ALG Nadhir Benbouali (at Győr until 30 June 2025) — FW  BEL Anthony Descotte (at Utrecht until 30 June 2025)

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  MAR Mehdi Boukamir (at Pafos until 30 June 2025) — FW  HAI Mondy Prunier (at Francs Borains until 30 June 2025)

Position	Staff
President	Fabien Debecq
Chief commercial officer	Walter Chardon
Managing director	Mehdi Bayat
Head coach	Rik De Mil
Assistant coach	Rudi Cossey Frank Defays
Goalkeeper coach	Cédric Berthelin
Fitness coach	Frédéric Renotte
Strength & conditioning coach	Antoine Huguenot Sébastien Delacroix
Video analyst	Amaury Smits
Data analyst	Pierre Neuchâteau
Head physio	Benjamin Tubiermont
Doctor	Dr.Clément Lepeuple
Physiotherapist	Lilian Scarlata Tristan Blyckaerts Frédéric Vanbelle
Masseur	Frédéric Chandelle
Head of education	Christophe Dessy
Kitman	Baptiste Collier
Delegate	Arnaud Charlier
Performance Manager	Rudger Van Snick

• "Sporting de Charleroi" (in French)., official website
• "Sporting de Charleroi". UEFA.com. Archived from the original on 11 January 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
• Charleroi SC at EUFO.de
• Charleroi SC at Weltfussball.de
• Charleroi SC at National Football Teams.com
• Charleroi SC at Football-Lineups.com