Daring Brussels, formerly known as Racing White Daring Molenbeek or RWDM, is a Belgian professional

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

based in

Molenbeek-Saint-Jean (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ), often simply called Molenbeek, is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the western p ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. The club plays in the

Challenger Pro League The Challenger Pro League, previously known as 1B Pro League is the second-highest division in the Football in Belgium, Belgian football Belgian football league system, league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was created by the ...

(second tier). The club is seen in Belgium as a continuation of previous clubs with the same name that went out of business.

History

The club was founded in 2015, Standard Wetteren had folded that year and merged with another club, liberating its ''matricule'' which was sold to people wanting to revive the former RWDM with matricule 47 which folded in 2002. As such the new club was named RWDM47. The club quickly rose through the ranks, winning two consecutive promotions from the fifth to the third tier. In December 2021, the club announced that it had come under the ownership of American business executive

John Textor John Charles Textor (born September 30, 1965) is an American businessman. He is the former executive chairman of streaming television service FuboTV. He has been recognized for his work in the fields of digital media and entertainment with the nic ...

, who also holds stakes in English side

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

, Brazilian side

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

and French side

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. RWDM's academy is considered one of the best in Belgium, and many footballers have come from there, notably

Adnan Januzaj Adnan Januzaj (born 5 February 1995) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger for La Liga club Las Palmas, on loan from Sevilla. Born and raised in Brussels, Januzaj began his career with Anderlecht before joining Manchester U ...

and

Michy Batshuayi Michy Batshuayi-Atunga (born 2 October 1993) is a Belgian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt and the Belgium national football team, Belgium ...

to name a few Belgian internationals as well as a few internationals for other countries. On 13 May 2023, RWDM secured promotion to the

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

by winning the

title in a narrow 1–0 victory over

RSCA Futures RSCA Futures is the youth academy of Belgian club R.S.C. Anderlecht. The most senior team of RSCA Futures acts as Anderlecht's reserve team, and competes in the Challenger Pro League, the second flight of Belgian football. History On 14 Augus ...

, with

Mickaël Biron Mickaël Christophe Biron (born 26 August 1997) is a Martiniquais professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward or a Forward (association football)#Winger, winger for Belgian club R.W.D. Mol ...

scoring the winning goal. They went straight back down at the end of their first season back in the top flight and the following season narrowly missed out on promotion, wasting a strong lead with just two games to go and eventually ending just short of automatic promotion. In June 2025, the club changed its name to ''Daring Brussels''.

Rivalries and fanbase

RWDM's traditional rival is

Union Saint-Gilloise Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (), also known as Union Saint-Gilloise, Union SG or simply Union, is a Belgian professional football club from Brussels based in Forest. Founded in 1897 in the neighbouring Saint-Gilles, the club has played its home ...

, which goes back to the 19th century when RWDM were known as Daring Club. RWDM also have a rivalry with

RSC Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Div ...

, with just 3 kilometres separating the two clubs and the fixtures often taking over the mantle of the "Derby of Brussels" in the professional era due to Union's relative decline. RWDM also have rivalries with

Eendracht Aalst SC Eendracht Aalst is a Belgian football club based in Aalst, East Flanders. The club currently play in Belgian Division 2 where they are the defending champions in their region. History During World War I, citizens from Aalst played footbal ...

, Lierse, and

RFC Liège Royal Football Club de Liège (more commonly known as RFC Liège) is a professional football club based in Liège, capital of Liège Province, Belgium. The team currently play in Challenger Pro League, the second tier in Belgian football. It ...

. RWDM drew support from across the Belgian capital due to its merger of 4 teams, as well as in the

Periphery Periphery or peripheral may refer to: Music *Periphery (band), American progressive metal band * ''Periphery'' (album), released in 2010 by Periphery *"Periphery", a song from Fiona Apple's album '' The Idler Wheel...'' Gaming and entertainme ...

, where many ''Brusseleirs'' migrated to, in contrast to the more locally based Saint-Gilles support and the nationwide Anderlecht support. It had high attendances for a big part of its existence as RWDM, until financial troubles and the subsequent changeover with Johan Vermeesch in charge of the new club led to the name change to

FC Brussels Racing White Daring Molenbeek Brussels Football Club, often simply referred to as RWDM Brussels, F.C. Brussels or simply Brussels, was a Belgian professional association football club based in the municipality of Molenbeek, in the Brussels, Bru ...

, and caused a split in the fanbase. During their years as FC Brussels, the

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group Brussels Power 05 emerged, while many of the "old school" casuals "Brussels Boys" boycotted. These days both supporter groups sit in the same ''Bloc A''.

Players

First-team squad

Out on loan

Club staff

Honours

* Challenger Pro League **Winner (1):

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* * {{Belgian Pro League Football clubs in Belgium Association football clubs established in 2015 2015 establishments in Belgium Molenbeek-Saint-Jean Football clubs in Brussels