Relebohile Mofokeng and his new side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise will not play in the UEFA Champions League this season after losing 6-5 on aggregate to Norwegian champions FK Bodo/Glimt.
Mofokeng had a brilliant start to life at Saint-Gilloise, scoring the winning penalty in the Belgium Super Cup against champions Club Brugge.
A week later, he netted in his Belgian Jupiler Pro League debut, scoring four minutes after coming off the bench in a 5-1 win over Westerlo.
However, his bright start was dimmed a bit after his side were eliminated from the UCL third qualifying round on Tuesday evening, losing 3-2 thanks to a goal in the 117th minute by the hosts.
USG had forced extra-time thanks to making it 2-2 in in the 88th minute but were reduced to 10 men in injury-time when Kamiel Van de Perre was sent off.
Mofokeng made his debut in the competition, coming off the bench in the first minute of extra-time but this time being unable to impact the game much.
Instead, USG will now drop the UEFA Europa League league phase for the 2026/27 campaign.
Glimt made headlines during last season’s UCL campaign after qualifying for the knockout stages following shock wins over Manchester City (3-1) and Atlético Madrid (2-1).
They then went on to eliminate Serie A giants Inter Milan 5-2 on aggregate in the knockout phase playoffs, and won their first Last 16 leg 3-0 over Sporting. However, their brilliant campaign ended after the Portuguese giants forced extra-time in the second leg and beat them 5-3 on aggregate.