But today, no one talks about Thomas Didillon anymore. Many are even unable to give the name of his current club. As if he had disappeared from the face of the Earth. However, you don't have to look far: since the start of the season, he has been training with players from Belgian D4, the Cercle B team (D2 VV A). A decision by the Bruges management who no longer wanted him upon his return from Monaco where he was on loan last year.
Over the last 25 months, Didillon has only played one official match, against Rodez in the Coupe de France (2-2, elimination on penalties). To find traces of his last match in Belgium, you have to go back to February 2022. At 28 years old, it all looks like a big waste. But how did we get there? “It all starts with the signing of his contract at the Cercle in the summer of 2020replies one of his former teammates. To convince him to bring him in while he was still a starter at Anderlecht until Vincent Kompany pushed him out, Cercle offered him a monstrous contract. A salary that you don't often see in Belgium. That was the start of his troubles.”
Thomas has invested and must repay a loan to the bank. If his salary had fallen, he would have been financially overwhelmed.
With Didillon, the Bruges management (and Monaco owner) wanted to shout out its ambitions loud and clear. Ambitions which today carry the Circle into Champions Playoffs. But although he played 59 official matches, the Frenchman did not carry the team as much as the managers imagined. “A good goalkeeper, discreet in the locker room and who almost never speaks in the group. He wasn’t there to make waves”, describes a former teammate. Not really the leader profile for young people that the Circle wanted.
His salary then began to question the Bruges bosses. First there was the loan to Monaco last season, where he was number 2 in Philippe Clement's squad. Then, on his return, the announcement that the Circle no longer counted on him. “Thomas was ready to leave but the offers received caused his salary to drop enormously. By more than halfexplains a friend of the French goalkeeper. Thomas therefore requested financial compensation, as regularly happens in this type of case, but the Circle refused. Thomas therefore decided to serve his last year of contract, knowing that it would be a blank year.
Because for Didillon, there was no question of giving up his salary. “By signing his four-year contract at Cercle, he launched several investments, with a loan that he must repay to the bank every month. If we divide his pay slip in half, he will be financially overwhelmedspecifies his friend. People imagine that footballers are rich but you have to make a few years of your career profitable to ensure a good future.”
He studies and dreams of the Dutch championship
Didillon has been thinking about the future for a long time now. For several months, he has been studying to obtain a Bachelor's degree in administrative business. And he invested in a French company which helps and advises athletes on administrative and legal levels. It is not on the pitch but behind the scenes of sport that he envisages a second life, the one without crampons.
But he is only 28, still a relatively young age for a goalkeeper. When his contract at Cercle expires on June 30, he hopes to bounce back. “But he will have to find a club where we will look at his CV in its entirety, says his former teammate. Some will say that he was still Monaco's second goalkeeper in 2022-2023 but others will see that he is completely lacking in rhythm and that it will take time to revive him.
Thomas Didillon is aware of this but that doesn't stop him from having a dream: the Eredivisie. The Dutch championship would allow him to play in his partner's country, while turning, undoubtedly for good, a long Belgian chapter, ten years after his arrival at Seraing where he was on loan from FC Metz.
