South African teenager Shandre Campbell made his senior debut for Belgian champions Club Brugge in an exciting league encounter against Sint-Truidense V.V. on Saturday.
The 19-year-old has impressed for Brugge’s junior side Club NXT since moving there from SuperSport United, and has earned himself a spot in the first team as a result of that form.
On Saturday’ Campbell’s European career took a step further when he was introduced into the game with five minutes left on the clock, and the champions trailing 2-1. With the young South African on the field, Brugge would score a late equaliser to earn a valuable point away from home.
As far as the title race goes, the point saw them move within eight points of runaway league leaders Genk.
Debut with the big boys! ⚡️ #STVVCLU
Despite earning rave reviews over the last two seasons, Campbell has yet to receive a call-up to the national team. However, his impressive form in Belgium will no doubt have impressed Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos, who is Belgian.
With Bafana playing World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Benin next month, Campbell will have almost a month to convince coach Broos that he can also get the job done on the international stage.
For now, he will have to work hard in order to stay in the Club Brugge first team. On Tuesday, Brugge travel to Italy to take on Atalanta in a UEFA Champions League encounter. Should he feature, he will become the first South African to play in the competition in six years.
During the 2018/19 campaign, Percy Tau, also in the colours of Brugge, was a regular for the club, and featured against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
IOL Sport