Liverpool have signed 18-year-old goalkeeping talent Lucca Brughmans for €35 million from KRC Genk in the Belgian Pro League.
The youngster is next off the conveyor belt at a club that is famous for its production of top keepers, with four of their goalkeepers from the last 15 years going on to make big moves to the top level of European football. Brughmans will return to Genk on loan for the next season.
Who are the other goalkeepers to follow a similar route?
Penders joined Chelsea in 2024, and like Brughmans went straight back on loan to Genk. He spent last season on loan at Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg, where he played 50 games in all competitions. This also gave him experience playing in Europe, where he played 12 games in the Conference League, giving him European experience. The 21-year-old has taken up his place as Chelsea’s second keeper, and he started in the Carabao Cup.
Vandevoordt was one of the hottest talents in Belgium when he was at Genk and had been linked to a move to a top club for a long time, but decided to stay at the Belgian club until the end of the 2023/24 season, when he made his move to Leipzig, a move that had been agreed two years earlier. The Belgium under-21 international has been named in the senior international squad but is still waiting for his first cap. He appears to be the Leipzig number one this season, having played limited Bundesliga games in his first two seasons.
Bizot may not be the biggest name in goalkeeping, but he did become a Dutch international in 2020. He played 74 times in three seasons for Genk before moving to AZ Alkmaar. He slowly has made his way up in the leagues, playing for Brest in Ligue 1 and then joined Aston Villa, where he has now found himself as the number two behind Zion Suzuki, having been behind Zion Suzuki last year.
The famous example is Courtois who has grown from his time at Genk to become one of the best keepers in the world. He has played 115 times for Belgium and won the Champions League twice with Real Madrid. He picked up four La Liga titles for Atletico and Real and also won two Premier League titles with Chelsea. This gives the man who won the Belgian Pro League with Genk one of the best goalkeeping CV’s in world football