Our defending champion men's football team is further strengthened, as after Cadu, Bence Ötvös, Barnabás Nagy, Daniel Arzani and Jonathan Levi we have signed 24-year-old Belgian centre-back Toon Raemaekers, who comes from KV Mechelen, from the Belgian top flight.

Introduction

Toon Raemaekers was born on 9 September 2000 in Diest, just 60 km from Brussels. He was introduced to football here and was signed by Lierse SK in 2007. Founded in 1906, he spent nine years in the club's youth team before moving to KVC Westerlo in 2016. At the age of 18, he joined the U21 team of OH Leuven.

Leuven also gave him a chance in the Belgian top flight for the 2020/21 season. At that time, his teammates in Leuven were Yohan Croizet, who is also well known from the Hungarian league, and 23-time Hungarian national team player Barnabás Bese. He played 715 minutes in 10 games this season.

In the summer of 2022, he joined KV Mechelen, where he played just 17 minutes in three matches and was loaned to Belgian second division side Lierse. There he played in 29 matches in the 2022/23 season, receiving a total of 2,496 minutes. He scored twice in the league and once in the cup. After his loan contract expired, he returned to Mechelen, where a serious injury meant he only played six games and had to miss most of the season.

Raemaekers showed great willpower to fight his way back into the team after his recovery, playing in 28 league games (2229 minutes), 25 of which he was named in the starting line-up. He has also played twice in the cup and seven times in the European Cup qualifiers.

In the 2024/25 season, he has 81 tackles, 37 assists and 75 headers won in 35 league games. Transfermarkt, the German market value portal for players, estimates the 194cm defender's value at €1.2 million.