Cercle again reached the Belgian cup final in 1986, this time meeting city rivals Club Brugge. Cercle lost 0–3, with two questionable penalties scored by Jean-Pierre Papin. A next high point came in the recruitment of Yugoslav striker Josip Weber in 1988: despite a difficult start in Belgium, Weber proved to be Cercle's best post-war goal scorer, ranking as the team's top scorer from 1989 to 1994 (when he left for Anderlecht) successively. Weber was also national top scorer from 1992 until 1994. Another prominent player, Romanian record international Dorinel Munteanu, signed for Cercle in the 1990s.
