KAA Gent
Also written as Gent.
The club
Koninklijke Atletiek Associatie Gent were founded in 1864 as a gymnastics and athletics association in Ghent, East Flanders; the football section opened in 1900. Since 2013 they have played at the Planet Group Arena, capacity 20,175, having spent the previous ninety-three years at the Jules Ottenstadion. They play in blue and white and are known as De Buffalo's, a nickname the city took from Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which visited Ghent in the early twentieth century.
Recent seasons
Gent were runners-up in the Belgian Pro League in 2019/20. Their league placings in the seasons immediately after that were not confirmed from the sources read here. In 2025/26 they finished fourth in the regular season with 45 points from 30 matches, 13 wins, 6 draws and 11 defeats, 49 scored and 43 conceded, and then had a poor Champions' play-off, taking six points from ten matches with six draws and four defeats to finish fifth overall on 29 points. Ivan Leko was in charge until 8 December 2025 and Rik De Mil took over on 10 December. In the Belgian Cup they beat Patro Eisden 5-0 and Cercle Brugge 3-1 before losing the quarter-final 1-0 to Anderlecht on 15 January 2026.
Honours and landmarks
Gent have won the Belgian championship once, in 2014/15. They have won the Belgian Cup four times, in 1963/64, 1983/84, 2009/10 and 2021/22, and the Belgian Super Cup once, in 2015. The 2026/27 campaign is the club's 127th season and their 37th consecutive year in the Belgian top flight.
Notable scorelines
No reliable published record win or record defeat was confirmed from the sources read here. The result the club measures itself by is the 1-0 home win over Valencia in the Champions League group stage in 2015, Sven Kums scoring a second-half penalty for Gent's first ever Champions League victory.
European record
Gent's high point is the 2015/16 Champions League, their only appearance in the competition proper. Drawn in Group H with Zenit St Petersburg, Valencia and Lyon, they drew 1-1 with Lyon at home, beat Valencia 1-0 through the Kums penalty and beat Zenit 2-1, finishing second in the group to reach the round of 16. Wolfsburg ended it: 3-2 to the Germans in Ghent, then 1-0 in Wolfsburg, 4-2 on aggregate. The scorer of the Wolfsburg goal in the second leg was not confirmed from the sources read here.
Their other deep run came in the 2022/23 Conference League, where they reached the quarter-finals and drew West Ham United. The first leg in Ghent finished 1-1 on 13 April 2023; West Ham won the return 4-1 on 20 April and went through 5-2, then went on to win the competition. There is a historical footnote there: West Ham's first ever European match, in the 1964/65 Cup Winners' Cup they went on to win, was against Gent, then playing as La Gantoise.
The full tie-by-tie European record is not set out here because it was not established from the sources read.
Quotes
The Gent quotes below were published in Dutch. They are reproduced exactly as printed, with an English rendering given after each.
- "We waren dominant aan de bal, maar hadden wel meer moeten scoren" - Rik De Mil, Gent head coach, to Voetbalkrant, 6 August 2026. https://www.voetbalkrant.com/nieuws/2026-08-06/brandalarm-letterlijk-en-figuurlijk-voor-kaa-gent-in-goteborg-dit-zegt-rik-de-mil (In English: we were dominant on the ball, but we should have scored more.)
- "In Europa ben je niet klaar na een 0-1-zege." - Rik De Mil, Gent head coach, to Voetbalkrant, 6 August 2026. https://www.voetbalkrant.com/nieuws/2026-08-06/brandalarm-letterlijk-en-figuurlijk-voor-kaa-gent-in-goteborg-dit-zegt-rik-de-mil (In English: in Europe you are not finished after a 1-0 win.)
- "Dit is een fifty-fifty-confrontatie. Details en de vorm van de dag zullen beslissend zijn." - Rik De Mil, Gent head coach, before the first leg, to Voetbalprimeur, 5 August 2026. https://www.voetbalprimeur.be/nieuws/2119871/rik-de-mil-spreekt-zich-uit-over-goteborg.html (In English: this is a fifty-fifty tie. Details and form on the day will decide it.)
- "Ik was hier zondag voor hun thuiswedstrijd tegen Degerfors (2-0-zege, red.). Ik wilde de sfeer voelen. En die is geweldig... Ze spelen voor een vol huis en de fans stuwen hun ploeg echt vooruit." - Rik De Mil, Gent head coach, on scouting Goteborg in person, to Voetbalprimeur, 5 August 2026. https://www.voetbalprimeur.be/nieuws/2119871/rik-de-mil-spreekt-zich-uit-over-goteborg.html (In English: I was here on Sunday for their home match against Degerfors, a 2-0 win. I wanted to feel the atmosphere. And it is superb. They play in front of a full house and the fans really drive their team on.)
- "We zijn opnieuw een week verder. Met nieuwe en jonge jongens verloopt dat met ups en downs. Ons voetbal moet een proces zijn dat stelselmatig verbetert. Maar intussen moeten we ook resultaten boeken. Ik ga ervan uit dat we een stap hebben gezet." - Rik De Mil, Gent head coach, to Voetbalprimeur, 5 August 2026. https://www.voetbalprimeur.be/nieuws/2119871/rik-de-mil-spreekt-zich-uit-over-goteborg.html (In English: we are another week further on. With new and young lads that comes with ups and downs. Our football has to be a process that steadily improves. But in the meantime we also have to get results. I assume we have taken a step.)
Right now (2026/27)
Rik De Mil is the manager, in his first full season after taking over in December 2025. The summer business was moderate. Laszlo Benes joined from Union Berlin for an undisclosed fee on 1 July 2026, Christian Burgess arrived free from Union Saint-Gilloise the same day, and Josue Vergara signed from FK Auda, also on 1 July, for an undisclosed fee. Nurio Fortuna returned from a loan at Volos on 30 June. Going out, Samuel Kotto's loan at Reims was made permanent on 1 July and Daisuke Yokota's at Hannover 96 likewise, while Jean-Kevin Duverne went back to Nantes at the end of his loan on 30 June.
The Belgian Pro League began on 7 August 2026 and Gent opened with a 2-0 home win over KV Mechelen on 9 August.
In the Conference League, Gent entered at the second qualifying round and drew LNZ Cherkasy of Ukraine. Both legs finished 0-0, away on 23 July 2026 and at home on 30 July, and Gent went through 4-2 on penalties.
The tie they are in right now is the third qualifying round against IFK Goteborg. Gent won the first leg 1-0 in Sweden on 6 August 2026. Hyllarion Goore scored in the 45th minute, put clear down the left by Laszlo Benes before cutting inside and seeing his shot take a heavy deflection past Viktor Andersson. Tibe De Vlieger and Josue Vergara had both forced saves before the goal; Goteborg were the better side after the interval and Adam Bergmark-Wiberg went close twice in stoppage time. There was also a fire alarm at the stadium during the evening. The return is at the Planet Group Arena on 13 August 2026, and Gent had not conceded a goal in the competition going into it.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.A.A._Gent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_KAA_Gent_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_KAA_Gent_season https://www.espn.com/soccer/team/results/_/id/3611/kaa-gent https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/401903142/kaa-gent-ifk-goteborg https://www.tribalfootball.com/article/gent-edge-goteborg-as-goore-strikes-in-conference-league-5214ed7d-912d-4b84-83ae-09d28223d715 https://www.voetbalkrant.com/nieuws/2026-08-06/brandalarm-letterlijk-en-figuurlijk-voor-kaa-gent-in-goteborg-dit-zegt-rik-de-mil https://www.voetbalprimeur.be/nieuws/2119871/rik-de-mil-spreekt-zich-uit-over-goteborg.html https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2015761--gent-vs-wolfsburg/ https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2037785--gent-vs-west-ham/ https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2037789--west-ham-vs-gent/ https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2049168--ifk-goteborg-vs-gent/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.