Who is Chemsdine Talbi? Club Brugge Champions League hero lowdown

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Scored twice vs Atalanta 

©TM/IMAGO

It was a famous night in the Lombardy region of Italy for Club Brugge as the Belgian’s produced a first-half masterclass to shock Atalanta. Brugge entered the second leg of their Champions League play-off with a slender one-goal advantage after a 2-1 win at the Jan Breydel Stadium. Atalanta, however, were still favourites to progress after they demonstrated their European pedigree by winning the Europa League last season after a shock triumph over Bayer Leverkusen in the final.

But any hopes of a Atalanta comeback were destroyed during an outstanding opening 45 minutes from Brugge. The Belgian’s were on song from the first whistle with Chemsdine Talbi undoubtedly the star of the show. After providing an assist in the first leg, Talbi scored twice in the opening 27 minutes – his first Champions League goals – to effectively take the tie beyond the side currently third in Serie A. Ferran Jutgla added a third on the stroke of half-time to establish a 5-1 aggregate lead and although Ademola Lookman pulled a goal back in the second half for Atalanta, Talbi was the star of the show as he enjoyed his breakthrough moment on the biggest stage.

Who is Chemsdine Talbi?

Talbi is one of the emerging talents in Belgian football and he’s enjoying his maiden full season in professional football. The 19-year-old only made nine appearances last season but he’s already racked up 31 games this campaign, contributing nine goal contributions. Talbi is a diminutive right-winger with excellent technical skills and he joined a prestigious list by netting a Champions League brace as a teenager. He became the fourth youngest player to score a brace in the competition behind Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Nicolo Zaniolo. His brilliance in Bergamo continued an impressive debut season and the young Belgian is a player to keep an eye on over the coming seasons as he has an extremely bright future.

Bart Tamsyn, Transfermarkt’s Area Manager for Belgium, provided a glowing report on Talbi, stating: “Personally, I think he, together with Konstantinos Karetsas, is the best talent currently in Belgium. Since his performance in the first leg against Atalanta and becoming Man of the Match, not a day has gone by without him being featured in the Belgian newspapers. And very often, also among supporters on social media, an appeal to Vincent Mannaert, the technical director of the Belgian Football Association (and until a year ago CEO of Club Brugge), to ensure that he and Karetsas choose the Belgian national team.

On his best role, Tamsin added: “He is now played on the right side, but in my opinion he would be a little better if he came from the left side. Given his technicality, speed and right foot, he could then cut inside and shoot. The position of second striker, false striker, 9.5 or whatever you want to call it is also one of his options. One of his working points is the switch to defensive work. Last weekend at STVV he did not pay enough attention to his direct opponent who could make it 2-0 (final score ultimately 2-2 with a goal from Club Brugge in minute 91). Yesterday he was also just a little too far from Zappacosta who gave the assist for the goal of Atalanta. Because they were under so much defensive pressure, I think the fact that he is not yet up to scratch defensively was the reason why he was replaced early in the second half for the more defensive-minded Hugo Siquet. But everybody agrees the best is yet to come and he is destined to be at the European top at some point.”

Club Brugge’s brilliant record at developing players

Brugge have earned an outstanding reputation for developing younger players across recent years and it’s increasingly becoming an attractive destination for future stars. There’s an acknowledgement at the Belgian club that they can provide a pathway for starlets to make their name in European football before earning a move to a top five league club. Offering youngsters the platform to impress in European competition, especially the Champions League, and guaranteeing regular first-team is imperative in convincing players to move to Bruges.

Across the last five seasons, Brugge have sold ten players for transfer fees in excess of €10 million – all to top five league clubs. Moreover, as the graphic above illustrates, Brugge have generated €251m from player sales since the start of the 2020/21 season. That ranks sixth in Europe from clubs outside the top five leagues with Benfica leading the way at €680m. Charles De Ketelaere’s €37.5m move to AC Milan is the Belgian club’s record sale and they have a number of extremely talented players within their squad with Talbi a potential star of the future.