Nathan Saliba’s summer breakout continues with transformative move to R.S.C. Anderlecht
There’s going to be another Canadian to watch in the Belgian league in 2025-2026, as Nathan Saliba has joined R.S.C. Anderlecht on a multi-million dollar transfer, completing a long-rumoured move to the club this week.
Amid a breakout 2025 Gold Cup for the 21-year-old midfielder, this move comes at an excellent time for him, as he’s done a great job of throwing his name into the hat to not just be in the CanMNT’s World Cup squad next summer, but perhaps even start games, too.
Having scored two goals in three games to kick off the Gold Cup, he’s been one of Canada’s biggest breakout stars of this summer, looking like the player that Jesse Marsch raved about in late May when asked about his ceiling.
#CanMNT head coach Jesse Marsch discusses the recent standout performances from Nathan Saliba, and admits he should have brought him into the team more over his year in charge so far 🍁 pic.twitter.com/iSCRlAM1w2
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 23, 2025
Safe to say, he’s been living up to some of that potential, and Canada will now hope that it powers them to Gold Cup success over the next 10 days, as they kick off their journey through the knockout stages of that tournament with a quarter-final matchup vs. Guatemala this weekend.
No matter what happens, however, it looks like Saliba will be set for a transformative club move, one that will push him to the next level in his already-promising young career.
That’s evident when looking at this move, which is notable for many reasons.
To begin, there’s the fact that Saliba has become the latest Canadian player to evolve and then move on from CF Montréal, who is becoming a bit of a development factory for the CanMNT. Of those in this current Gold Cup squad, eight players have either played or still play in Montréal, including Saliba, which is quite impressive.
Yet, that’s a credit to their development model, as despite struggling to find consistent results on the field over the last few years, they’ve done a great job of ensuring young players get minutes, opening doors for them to develop and move on. That they’ve sent Ismaël Koné, Alistair Johnston, Mathieu Choinière, and now Saliba to Europe directly showcases that.
Then, elsewhere, what stands out is that Saliba is making the move to Belgium, which is proving to be an excellent landing spot for young Canadians. Ranked as the eighth strongest league in Europe in terms of UEFA’s club coefficient, and eighth strongest league in the world via OPTA’s “team power rating system", the league is known for being extremely competitive, but also a great spot for youngsters to develop.
Canadians can attest to that, as Jonathan David spent two years with KAA Gent before making his move to LOSC in 2020, while Promise David has just had a breakout year with Union St-Gilloise, which opened up the door for him to make his CanMNT debut and perhaps make a big move down the road. Along with the work Tajon Buchanan did at Club Brugge to earn a move to Inter Milan, there’s proof that young Canadians can take that next step in this league.
Lastly, and most importantly, there’s the club Saliba finds himself at, as Anderlecht are one of the biggest clubs in the country, having won a record 34 Belgian league titles - Club Brugge is next at 19. Granted, Club Brugge are probably the biggest side in the country at the moment, given that Anderlecht have won just one title since 2014, coming in 2016-2017, but there’s no doubting their historical pedigree.
Saliba signs for Sporting. 🇨🇦
— RSC Anderlecht (@rscanderlecht) June 26, 2025
▹ More info in the app: https://t.co/woXqkTWP0l pic.twitter.com/gShGjNDB4V
Not only that, but Saliba also joins a club that is quite familiar with him, too. Why, one might ask? Their sporting director is none other than Olivier Renard, who spent almost five years as CF Montréal’s Sporting Director between 2019 and 2024.
Having kick-started Montréal’s ambitions of being a selling club, he was responsible for the sales of Koné and Johnston, and signed the likes of Saliba to homegrown contracts with the view of developing them and moving them on in the future, retaining sell-on clauses like Montréal did in this deal.
Because of that, it makes it a full-circle moment to see Saliba, who signed his first contract under Renard’s leadership in December 2020, now join Renard in his first European stop.
Yet, it shows why it’s a perfect spot for Saliba, because much like he had at Montréal, where he’s already accumulated 78 first-team appearances at his young age, he’ll be expected to get ample playing time at Anderlecht. As Renard has shown, he’s comfortable operating a selling club, so there will be room for someone like Saliba to come in, compete, and then potentially move on in a few years.
That’s perfect for Saliba’s long-term ambitions - he certainly has the potential to play in a top-five European league - but also his short-term goals, which are important to consider.
Of course, the big worry for any Canadian making a transfer in 2025 is that they’ve got the World Cup to think about next summer, where the battle for spots is as fierce as ever.
Thanks to the development of several new players, there are now maybe only a handful of true locks on the team, with the rest of the spots all up for grabs over the next 12 months.
That’s key, as it means that a player could very well still raise or lower their stock in the next year, which could have a big impact on transfers, which are inherently risky for players to make.
You make the right move, and you can vault yourself to that next level - but one wrong move and you could be in for a tough time.
With Saliba, however, he appears to be making a move that puts himself in the former category, as he joins a team whose squad’s average age was just over 25 last year. Not only that, but their two most-used midfielders in 24-25, Leander Dendoncker and Mats Rits, are 30 and 31, respectively, showing that Saliba will have every shot of taking one of their spots, especially with Dendoncker only being on loan from Aston Villa last year. 
Dendoncker and Rits's stats from the 24-25 season. As seen, they did a lot defensively, but also had a strong impact on the ball, especialy in possession (WyScout/Ben Griffis)
Plus, with Anderlecht being in Europa League qualifiers after finishing fourth last year, there will be plenty of opportunities for minutes if they can find a way to make the Europa League or even the UEFA Conference League, which would further help Saliba.
Lastly, however, while it’ll be good for Saliba to play and develop, that leads to an important question that many Anderlecht fans will be wondering - what can they expect from the young midfielder?
Nathan Saliba's numbers from this season with CF Montréal. As seen, he's been strong on the ball, which will lend itself nicely to Anderlecht (WyScout/Ben Griffis)
As this Gold Cup has shown, the big thing is the value he brings on the ball. Not only has he scored two goals, matching his career total with CF Montréal in that category, but he’s been good in possession, attempting 80 passes and completing 82.5% of them, including 5/10 long balls, 10 passes into the final third, one pass into the penalty area and two key passes (#s via OPTA).
Yet, that’s probably his best skill - he’s excellent at passing from deeper positions, as he’s averaged over 40 passes per 90 minutes in his CF Montréal career (completing 84.2% of them), sending 2.73 of those passes long (at a 54.4% completion rate), while averaging 6.74 passes into the final third (74.6% success rate) and 1.29 passes into the box (45.6% success rate) (#s via WyScout).
Because of that, he’s probably best described as a tempo-setting midfielder, one who looks to get on the ball and control the speed of the game.
Where he’s looking still to develop, however, is intwo areas - defensively, and in the final third. 
He's taken big strides defensively this year for Montréal, even as the club has languished in a tough start to 2025, but the Gold Cup has shown that there is still work to do - he’s winning just 38.1% of his duels via OPTA (despite winning 59.3% of them this year for Montréal), showing his adaptation to the physicality of Concacaf, although he’s also done well to make seven interceptions and 19 recoveries (#s via WyScout).
Then, in the final third, he wants to be more of a goal threat, something he has in his locker, as shown by his two goals at the Gold Cup, which were excellent strikes. He can score beautiful goals - his two Montréal markers were also well taken, with one being a thunderbolt from distance, and the other coming from a great run into the box - but he hasn’t been as dangerous offensively as he’d probably like.
Because of that, look for him to start making more runs into the final third, while also shooting and creating more chances (he’s averaged just 1.1 shots and 0.35 key passes per 90 in his Montréal career, via WyScout), as he has the technical ability to be dangerous in that area of play.
GOAL 🇨🇦
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 21, 2025
NATHAN SALIBA opens the scoring for Canada with a first-time shot off a free-kick 🤩
SET PIECES EH 👀
🔴 Watch #CanMNT LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/70OjZYlrdB
Yet, that’s likely to be what he’ll be pushed to do at Anderlecht. A team that mostly played a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 in 2024-2025, Saliba will either look to be a box-to-box #8 in the former or an advanced #6 in the latter. In particular, the idea of him doing the former is quite enticing, as it’d allow him to still impact the game in possession, while freeing him up to push higher up the pitch and not neglect defensive duties.
At the same time, given that Montréal’s mostly played in a double-pivot in Saliba’s time with the club, something he had to adapt to, he’ll also be very comfortable with the idea of playing in that 4-2-3-1 system, which Anderlecht will have known quite well when signing him.
GOAL 🇨🇦x6
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 18, 2025
NATHAN SALIBA, TAKE A BOW ⭐️
The #CFMTL midfielder, linked to Anderlecht 🇧🇪, scores his first #CanMNT goal to make it 6-0 vs. Honduras 🤯
🔴 Watch Gold Cup on OneSoccer & TSN pic.twitter.com/rV3hdT83tE
Plus, it’s not a bad thing for him to continue to develop as a double-pivot, given that Canada also use that system under Jesse Marsch, as it’ll help him potentially earn a spot there long-term - although with the continued progress of Saliba, Choinière, Koné and Niko Sigur, as well as the stability of Stephen Eustáquio, Canada might have to soon start considering a system where they use three of them at a time.
Certainly, Saliba having a breakout year in Anderlecht would help further force that issue, so look for him to make the most of this opportunity, as he looks to parlay a breakout summer into a huge 12 months ahead of the World Cup.
