Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...

. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

, the

top flight Top Flight (April 15, 1929 – 1949) was an American U.S. Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. She was the leading American filly of her generation at two and three years of age. Background Bred in Kentucky by the very prominent horseman Harry ...

of Dutch professional football, which they have won 6 times, having earned promotion from the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as t ...

in 2018–19. The club is one of three professional football clubs from Rotterdam, the others being Excelsior (est. 1902) and

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after i ...

(est. 1908).

History

On 1 April 1888, several students from Rotterdam founded a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

club called Rotterdamsche Cricket & Football Club Sparta. In July 1888, a football branch of the club was established. In 1890, Sparta played its first real football match, and in 1892 Sparta disbanded the cricket branch. Sparta was promoted to the highest league of Dutch football on 23 April 1893. In 1897, Sparta withdrew from the competition after continuous dubious arbitration of Sparta matches. The club continued to exist, however, and in 1899 the board of Sparta visited a match of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. Impressed with the red-and-white jersey of the English club, the board decided that Sunderland's colours (red-white striped jersey, black shorts) would henceforth be the colours of Sparta. In 1905, Sparta initiated and organised the first home match of the Netherlands national team, against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. The match, won 4–0 by the Netherlands, was a rematch of a game two weeks prior, when the Netherlands beat Belgium 4–1 in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. The first match at Sparta's new stadium, Het Kasteel (The Castle), in the Spangen area of west Rotterdam, was played on 14 October 1916. The stadium was renovated in 1999 and is still Sparta's stadium. Until the 2002–03 season, Sparta had always played at the highest level, but after they appointed the former international player

Frank Rijkaard Franklin Edmundo Rijkaard (; born 30 September 1962) is a Dutch former footballer and former manager who played as a defensive midfielder. Rijkaard played for Ajax, Real Zaragoza and AC Milan and represented the Netherlands national team side ...

as a manager they were relegated from the top-level

in 2002. That made Rijkaard resign from his position. Sparta returned to the Eredivisie for the 2005–06 season. They were relegated again in 2010. On 20 August 2010, they equalled Ajax's and

Heracles Almelo Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to ...

's Dutch league record win when they defeated Almere City 12–1 with Johan Voskamp scoring an

record 8 goals on his debut. After six years in the Eerste Divisie, Sparta again won promotion to the Eredivisie in April 2016 after a 3–1 win over Jong Ajax won them an unassailable lead over second placed VVV-Venlo. However, they were relegated for the third time in their history in May 2018 after they were beaten 1–3 on aggregate by FC Emmen in the promotion/relegation play-offs. The result proved to be a historical one since Emmen won their first ever promotion to the

. Sparta has won six national titles (1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1915 and 1959) and three national cups (1958, 1962 and 1966).

Meuse/Scheldt Cup

The best footballers of Rotterdam and

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

contested a yearly match between 1909 and 1959 for the Meuse- and Scheldt Cup (Maas- en Schelde Beker). It was agreed to play the game at stadium Het Kasteel in Rotterdam and at the Bosuilstadion in Antwerp. The cup was provided in 1909 by Kees van Hasselt from Rotterdam and P. Havenith from Antwerp.

Youth program

The Sparta Jeugdopleiding (English: Sparta Youth Academy) is a four-star certified youth academy and amongst the strongest in the nation, having won the national academy of the year award on several occasions. Several International footballers have progressed through the ranks of the academy, including Danny Blind, Danny Koevermans, David Mendes da Silva, Ed de Goey,

Winston Bogarde Winston Lloyd Bogarde (born 22 October 1970) is a Dutch retired professional footballer, and was the assistant coach at Ajax. He was known for his physical strength, and played mostly as a central defender although he could occasionally play as ...

, Memphis Depay,

Henk Fräser Hendrikus "Henk" Fraser (born 7 July 1966) is a Dutch football coach and former player who most recently managed Eredivisie side FC Utrecht. He played as a defender for various Dutch teams. Born in Suriname, he earned seven caps for the Nether ...

, Jan van Beveren, Georginio Wijnaldum,

Anwar El Ghazi Anwar El Ghazi (Arabic: أنور الغازي; Riffian-Berber: ⴰⵏⵡⴰⵔ ⵍⴴⴰⵣⵉ; born 3 May 1995) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a winger for PSV and the Netherlands national team. He played for Ajax, Lille a ...

, Jetro Willems, John de Wolf,

Kevin Strootman Kevin Johannes Willem Strootman (born 13 February 1990) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Italian club Genoa, on loan from French club Marseille. Club career Sparta Rotterdam Born in Ridderkerk, Strootman began hi ...

, Rick van Drongelen and

Nick Viergever Nick Viergever (; born 3 August 1989) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defender for Utrecht. He also made three appearances for the Netherlands national team. Club career Sparta Rotterdam Viergever made his debut in the Er ...

, Marten de Roon amongst others.

Honours

National

* Netherlands Football League Championship /

: 6 :: 1908–09, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1914–15, 1958–59 *

: 1 :: 2015–16 *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

: 3 :: 1957–58, 1961–62, 1965–66 *

Eerste Klasse The Eerste Klasse ( en, First Class) started as the 1st tier of football in the Netherlands and is now the 6th tier. The league is divided into eleven divisions, six for Saturday clubs and five for Sunday clubs. These divisions correspond to the ...

(Tier 6): 10 :: 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1925, 1929, 1953, 1956

Others

*Rotterdam Easter Tournament Runners-up (2): 1934, 1948

Domestic results

ImageSize = width:700 height:60 PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/2021 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1990 Colors = id:bl1 value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5) id:bl2 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.3) id:rs value:rgb(0.8,0.6,0.6) id:rn value:rgb(0.9,0.1,0.1) PlotData= bar:Position width:15 color:white align:center from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1991 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/01/1991 till:01/01/1992 shift:(0,-4) text:8 from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/1993 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 shift:(0,-4) text:9 from:01/01/1994 till:01/01/1995 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1996 shift:(0,-4) text:6 from:01/01/1996 till:01/01/1997 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/1998 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/01/1998 till:01/01/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/01/2000 till:01/01/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/01/2002 till:01/01/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:8 from:01/01/2003 till:01/01/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/01/2004 till:01/01/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/01/2005 till:01/01/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/01/2006 till:01/01/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/01/2007 till:01/01/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/01/2009 till:01/01/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:16 from:01/01/2010 till:01/01/2011 shift:(0,-4) text:9 from:01/01/2011 till:01/01/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/01/2012 till:01/01/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/01/2013 till:01/01/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:16 from:01/01/2014 till:01/01/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:8 from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:15 from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/01/2018 till:01/01/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/01/2019 till:01/01/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/01/2020 till:01/01/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:8 from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/2002 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: "

" from:01/01/2002 till:01/01/2005 color:bl2 shift:(0,13) text: "

" from:01/01/2005 till:01/01/2010 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: "

" from:01/01/2010 till:01/01/2016 color:bl2 shift:(0,13) text: "

" from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2018 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: "

" from:01/01/2018 till:01/01/2019 color:bl2 shift:(0,13) text: "

" from:01/01/2019 till:01/01/2021 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: "

" Below is a table with Sparta Rotterdam's domestic results since the introduction of the

in 1956.

Sparta in Europe

* Q = Qualifying Round * 1R = First round * 2R = Second round * 3R = Third round * 1/4 = Quarter-final

Current squad

Reserve squad

Players out on loan

Former players

Club staff

Former coaches

Edgar Chadwick Edgar Wallace Chadwick (14 June 1869 – 14 February 1942) was a left-sided footballer who had a long and distinguished career with Everton during the 1890s. He was also the national coach for the Netherlands from 1908 to 1913. His cousin, ...

(1915) * Peter Donaghy (1929–30) * Doug Livingstone (1949) *

Walter Crook Walter Crook (28 April 1913 – 27 December 1988) was an English football player and manager. Career Playing career Crook, who played as a full back, played in the Football League for Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers, making a total of 2 ...

(1950) *

Denis Neville Denis Charles Neville (6 May 1915 – 11 January 1995) was an English football player and manager who managed the Dutch national side between 1964 and 1966. Upon leaving the Dutch national side, Neville moved back to England to manage non-lea ...

(1955–63) * Bill Thompson (1963–66) *

Wiel Coerver Wiel Coerver (; 3 December 1924 – 22 April 2011) was a Dutch football manager and the developer of the "Coerver Method", a football coaching technique. Playing career Coerver played five years for local side Rapid JC, with whom he won t ...

(1966–69) * Georg Keßler (1970–71) * Elek Schwartz (1971–72) *

Jimmy Adamson James Adamson (4 April 1929 – 8 November 2011) was an English professional footballer and football manager. He was born in Ashington, Northumberland. He made 486 appearances for Burnley ranking him sixth in their all-time appearance lis ...

(1976) * Cor Brom (1976–78) * Mircea Petescu (1978–80) *

Joop Brand Joop Brand (born 11 June 1936) is a retired association football player and manager from the Netherlands. Playing career He played for Xerxes, DFC, HVC and Heracles Almelo. Managerial career He coached DWS, HFC Haarlem, AZ, Go Ahead Eagle ...

(1980) *

Barry Hughes Barry Hughes (31 December 1937 – 2 June 2019) was a Welsh professional football player and manager, active primarily in the Netherlands. He played as a defender. Early and personal life Hughes was born in Caernarfon. He attended Glyndwr Sec ...

(1980–83) *

Bert Jacobs Bert Jacobs (March 5, 1941 – November 14, 1999) was a Dutch football manager, who played for HFC Haarlem. Jacobs was a football trainer at a young age, worked for Roda JC, FC Utrecht, Fortuna Sittard, Vitesse Arnhem, RKC Waalwijk and Sporting ...

(1983–84) *

Theo Vonk Theo Vonk (born 16 December 1947) is a Dutch former football player and manager, most recently in charge of Gibraltar Premier Division side Glacis United, where he also served as technical director. Career Vonk was born in Uitgeest. He spent ...

(1984–86) *

(1986–88) * Rob Baan (1988–90) *

Rob Jacobs Rob Jacobs (born 15 October 1943) is a Dutch former association football player and manager. A right-back, played for Feijenoord, Xerxes DHC and SBV Excelsior. He coached SBV Excelsior, FC Groningen, Roda JC, Feyenoord, P.A.O.K., Sparta Rot ...

(1991–93) * Han Berger (1993–95) *

Henk van Stee Henk van Stee (, born 17 December 1961 in Rotterdam, South Holland) is a former football midfielder from the Netherlands, who played for Sparta Rotterdam and De Graafschap. He retired in 1990, and became a football manager, who worked for Sparta ...

(1995) * Henk ten Cate (1995–97) * Hans van der Zee (1997–98) * Jan Everse (1998–99) * Dolf Roks (1999–01) * Willem van Hanegem (2001) *

(2001–02) * Fritz Korbach (2003) * Chris Dekker (2003) *

Mike Snoei Mike Snoei (born 4 December 1963) is a former Dutch football player and manager. He is currently in charge of Eerste Divisie side Telstar. During his playing days, Snoei played for Excelsior and Sparta Rotterdam in the Eredivisie and Eerste Divi ...

(2003–05) *

Adri van Tiggelen Adrianus Andreas "Adri" van Tiggelen (born 16 June 1957) is a retired Dutch footballer who played as a left back. His career in football was intimately connected to Sparta Rotterdam, in which he began as a professional footballer, going on to m ...

''(interim)'' (2005) * Wiljan Vloet (2005–07) * Gert Aandewiel (2007) *

''(interim)'' (2007) * Foeke Booy (2007–09) *

Frans Adelaar Frans Adelaar (born 5 December 1960) is a Dutch football manager and former professional player. He most recently was manager of Dutch top amateur side IJsselmeervogels. Career Club career Adelaar played professional football for FC Utrecht a ...

(2009–10) *

Aad de Mos Adriaan "Aad" de Mos (born 27 March 1947) is a Dutch retired professional football manager whose career spanned for almost thirty years. He has managed teams in his home country, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Greece, as well m ...

(2010) * Jan Everse (2010–11) * Jos van Eck (2011) * Michel Vonk (2011–13) * Henk ten Cate ''(interim)'' (2013) * Gert Kruys (2014) * Alex Pastoor (2015–2017) * Dolf Roks ''(interim)'' (2017) * Dick Advocaat (2018) * Henk Fraser (2018–2022) * Maurice Steijn (2022–present)

References

External links

Official website

Sparta Rotterdam at Football-lineups.comitwmdespartasupporterUnofficial website
{{Authority control Football clubs in Rotterdam Football clubs in the Netherlands 1888 establishments in the Netherlands Association football clubs established in 1888