LOMMEL - AWAY SHIRT 2023/2024
Lommel SK - officially Lommel Sportkring - are a Belgian professional football club based in the industrial town of Lommel in the province of Limburg. Founded in 1932 and reformed through a 2003 merger of local rivals Overpelt-Fabriek and KFC Lommel SK, the club play their home matches at the 8,000-capacity Soevereinstadion. In modern football, Lommel are best known as the ninth club acquired by the City Football Group - the Manchester City-owned global network - who bought them in May 2020 to serve as a European development hub for the group's brightest young talents.
The 2023/2024 campaign - during which this striking away shirt was worn - was Lommel's fourth season under CFG ownership and their third in the second-tier Challenger Pro League. It was also the closest the CFG-era side had ever come to a return to the top flight. In the regular season, the Green and Whites finished a strong 4th on 52 points from 30 matches - 15 wins, 7 draws and 8 defeats - and qualified comfortably for the promotion play-offs.
The play-off run that followed produced one of the most dramatic evenings in the club's recent history. Lommel came through two two-legged ties on aggregate scorelines of 2-1 and 3-2 to set up a promotion play-off final against KV Kortrijk - just one step from the Belgian Pro League for the first time in more than two decades. After a bruising first leg, Lommel dragged themselves back level on aggregate in the second before the ninety minutes were up, forcing an extra half-hour. It was then that Kortrijk seized control, scoring four unanswered goals in extra time to break Lommel hearts and deny them their long-awaited top-flight return.
Behind the results was the increasingly familiar Lommel identity - a squad packed with loans and permanent transfers from across the City Football Group family, promising young Belgians blooded in a first-team environment, and a football philosophy overseen by the Manchester City sporting network. The 2023/2024 season may have ended in play-off heartbreak, but it laid the groundwork for the Belgian Pro League return that would eventually come - and this bright away shirt was seen at grounds all over Belgium's second tier during a memorable year.
Follow the club on X: @LommelSK
