Loïc Mbe Soh Joins Sparta Prague After Impressive Stint at Sint-Truiden

Loïc Mbe Soh’s winding route through European football has a new stop: Sparta Prague.

The Czech champions have struck a deal worth around €3m with Sint-Truiden for the former Paris Saint-Germain and Nottingham Forest defender, rewarding a sharp burst of form that has rebuilt his reputation over the past year.

From short stint in Belgium to a major move

Mbe Soh only arrived at Sint-Truiden in January, brought in as cover after Rein Van Helden left for Antwerp. He did far more than plug a gap.

Thrown straight into the side, the 25-year-old played 14 league games in the second half of last season, helping Sint-Truiden secure European football for the first time in the club’s history. He has already added two more appearances this campaign, enough to convince Sparta that this was the moment to move.

Sint-Truiden, who picked him up without fanfare, now bank a significant fee. Sparta get a defender entering his prime, hardened by a career that has rarely followed the easy path.

PSG promise, Forest frustration

Mbe Soh came through the PSG academy, one of many highly rated defenders trying to break into a star-studded first team. He managed three senior appearances before deciding he needed a different route to regular football.

Nottingham Forest offered that chance in 2020. The reality was harsher.

Across four seasons at the City Ground, he played just 13 games and scored once. Competition for places and the club’s rapid rise through the divisions limited his opportunities, and he was pushed towards loan spells to keep his development alive.

He spent time at Guingamp in France and Almere City in the Netherlands, picking up experience but never quite forcing his way into Forest’s long-term plans. By 2024, the story was over. He left on a free.

Rebuilding at Beerschot and Sint-Truiden

Beerschot handed him a reset in the Pro League. Mbe Soh played 52 times for the club, immediately becoming a regular. The first full season ended in relegation from the top flight, a brutal blow for a defender trying to re-establish himself.

He stayed and helped lead a promotion push the following year, his performances steady enough to attract interest higher up the ladder. That form earned him a move back to the Belgian top division with Sint-Truiden in the January window.

From there, his rise accelerated. A strong half-season, a historic European qualification, and now a transfer to Sparta Prague.

A defender with something to prove

At 25, Mbe Soh arrives in Prague with a CV that mixes elite schooling, limited chances at the top level, and a growing body of work in Belgium and the Netherlands. Sparta are buying both the player he is now and the one PSG once thought he could become.

After years of loans, relegation battles and bit-part roles, he finally walks into a club where he is not a project on the fringes, but a central piece of a team with European ambitions.

This time, the stage is his to keep.