Club Brugge’s patient midfielders

With the Belgian Champions Play Offs kicking off last weekend, the current champions Club Brugge have released another thoughtful campaign created by Mutant. 

The agency’s 20/21 season campaign, The Farmer Knows his Field, referenced the derogatory nickname ‘boeren’ – meaning peasant or farmer – that’s often given to players and fans in reference to Brugge residents’ agricultural heritage. 

While that campaign celebrated the farmer’s hard work, skill and knowledge, this film directed by Maky Margaridis and Tristan Feres through Bleu Nuit, builds on boosting the club’s sterling qualities with the simple but poetic metaphor of the card game 'patience' – a game played by one person... with no opponent.  

Titled, Patience, the spot uses real footage from the club’s archives, including previous footballing legends Jan Ceulemans, Gert Verheyen and Timmy Simons, that’s interspersed with cinematic shots of a ‘farmer’ playing patience.

The numbers of the cards he deals are synonymous with the archive clips featuring players with the same shirt number. The card game does not end on the Kings, as it should, but on the four Jacks, better known as ‘farmers’ in Dutch.

This film introduces qualities of a good player – the ability to hold your nerve, know which hand to play, which aces are up your sleeve and the realisation that your only opponent is you.