“I’m always slightly selfless,” says Genks Trésor, Europe’s second-best preparer in football leagues.

In the Transfermarkt interview

Mike Trésor is playing the best season of his career so far with the Belgian leaders KRC Genk – and on Wednesday his market value increased by 5 million to 13 million euros. The 23-year-old playmaker not only scored seven goals in 30 games in the Jupiler Pro League, but also prepared 18 more. Across all top European leagues, only Rayan Philippe of Luxembourg side FC Swift Hesperingen has a better tally with 20 assists (to the statistics), including all competitive games also Dusan Tadić (19 assists) and Kevin De Bruyne (21). “First of all, I didn’t know. But I’m very happy, that’s good. It shows the good shape we’re in as a team, and so am I personally,” Trésor said in an interview with Transfermarkt.fr about his standing in the statistics.

He is “always a bit altruistic,” said the former youth player for RSC Anderlecht, who made his first professional steps in the Netherlands with NEC Nijmegen and Willem II before Genk signed him for €3.5m in 2021. “I don’t focus on statistics, but of course they are important parameters in a career, especially when it comes to reaching the next level.”

Even if he wears number eleven at KRC, he was “by nature” always a classic ten – only in Anderlecht did he play as a false nine for a while: “During this time I started scoring goals . But it’s true that I’ve always had this altruistic nature, this vision of the game, to be able to serve my teammates. And every year it seems to get better. I won’t lie, I still prefer scoring goals. It depends on the type of action, but a goal generally evokes more emotion for me than an assist.”

KRC Genk coach Wouter Vrancken has ‘changed everything’ for Mike Trésor

The fact that things are going much better this season than last year, when Trésor prepared seven goals and didn’t score any himself, has something to do with coach Wouter Vrancken: “That changed everything. He gave me a chance and trusts me. Even if there will always be games that aren’t that good, I know that the trust is there, that it’s built. Now it’s up to me to give it back on the pitch.” In general, Genk was less good last year when the team finished eighth than it is now. So Vrancken not only changed Trésor, but the entire team: “He is a coach who understands the players he has and knows what he wants to do with them. It makes it easier for everyone, interpersonal but also for understanding what needs to be done on the pitch.”

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He also worked on himself: “I’ve become much more realistic. (…) This year I might play less beautifully, but I make more differences. That’s when it clicked for me.” Last year, however, he was much more defensively oriented due to the system, albeit nominally “tens”, which is why he rarely played the last pass: “This year it’s completely different. I’m more involved in the latter part of the attack. That’s where I make decisions, that’s where I make differences. So it’s more about changing the system than positioning.”

Trésor does not deny that Genk has the clear goal of becoming champions in the playoffs: “At the moment we are in a good position and we will do everything we can to stay there. At the start of the season, our goal was to make the playoffs, never be champions, or stay 1st all year. But if you see our performance and the work we’ve done, it would be a big disappointment for everyone (not to win the title; editor’s note).”

Bart Tamsyn, Area Manager Belgium at Transfermarkt, explains Mike Trésor’s new market value: “Its importance for Genk’s current top position in the league should not be underestimated. He regularly provides assists and is also capable of scoring a goal himself. In view of the fact that he is only 23 years old and still capable of development, he had to be given a fair market value. A move to a major European league seems like the next logical step in his career.”

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