Nkaka: "I feel I'm the ghost of Neerpede"

INTERVIEWS How would it be with Aristote Nkaka? A journalist from Het Nieuwsblad recently happened to meet him at Neerpede and struck up an interview with him. "I asked Gillet if I could train with him and the Futures and am very grateful that he said yes," he said.


"The phantom or ghost of Neerpede," is how Nkaka describes himself. The midfielder came to Anderlecht in 2018 in the wake of Marc Coucke and Luc Devroe from Ostend. KVO first rented him for half a season. However, when he then really came to Anderlecht in July, he was immediately persona non grata. "Was I immediately burned because I was a Devroe transfer? I don't know. I never got an explanation," he recounted. "I don't make trouble and do what the club asks me to do."

In the years that followed, Nkaka trained individually or was loaned out to Almeria, Santander, Paderborn and Beveren. None of the loan spells were successful. Last summer, Anderlecht wanted to terminate Nkaka's contract, but failed to reach an agreement. He admits that the nice salary played a role in that, but that he mainly wanted to wait until he found a new team. "But that didn't happen."

In the meantime, Nkaka did report to Neerpede every day to train. First individually with physical coach Hubert Lemaire. When Guillaume Gillet became coach of the Futures, Nkaka asked him if he could train with him. To his gratitude, Gillet agreed. "Thanks to him, I am fit and feel like a professional footballer again," Nkaka said. "It also clicks well with the young guys."

Nkaka's contract with Anderlecht expires at the end of this season. Then he will be a free agent and can look for a new club. The still only 26-year-old midfielder realizes that few clubs are waiting for him in 1A. Above all, he hopes to end up somewhere where the coach believes in him. "I want to find my smile and fun again," he says. "Because I lost that here. Although I did gain maturity."