Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam.
Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands.
Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight of Dutch professional football, which they have won 6 times, having earned promotion from the Eerste Divisie in 2018–19.
The club is one of three professional football clubs from Rotterdam, the others being Excelsior (est. 1902) and Feyenoord (est. 1908).
History
On 1 April 1888, several students from Rotterdam founded a cricket 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.
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.
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, Belgium.
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 as a manager they were relegated from the top-level Eredivisie 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's Dutch league record win when they defeated Almere City 12–1Sparta evenaart record Ajax en Heracles - De Telegraaf  with Johan Voskamp scoring an Eerste Divisie record 8 goals on his debut.Acht treffers bij debuut - De Telegraaf
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.Sparta Rotterdam terug in de eredivisie - NOS  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 Eredivisie.Emmen schrijft geschiedenis met promotie, Sparta degradeert uit eredivisie - AD
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 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, Memphis Depay, Henk Fräser, Jan van Beveren, Georginio Wijnaldum, Anwar El Ghazi, Jetro Willems, John de Wolf, Kevin Strootman, Rick van Drongelen and Nick Viergever, Marten de Roon amongst others.
Honours
National
Netherlands Football League Championship / Eredivisie: 6
1908–09, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1914–15, 1958–59
Eerste Divisie: 1
2015–16
KNVB Cup: 3
1957–58, 1961–62, 1965–66
Eerste Klasse (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:
"[[Eredivisie]]"  from:01/01/2002 till:01/01/2005  color:bl2  shift:(0,13)  text: "[[Eerste Divisie]]"  from:01/01/2005 till:01/01/2010  color:bl1  shift:(0,13)  text: "[[Eredivisie]]"  from:01/01/2010 till:01/01/2016  color:bl2  shift:(0,13)  text: "[[Eerste Divisie]]"  from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2018  color:bl1  shift:(0,13)  text: "[[Eredivisie]]"  from:01/01/2018 till:01/01/2019  color:bl2  shift:(0,13)  text: "[[Eerste Divisie]]"  from:01/01/2019 till:01/01/2021  color:bl1  shift:(0,13)  text: "[[Eredivisie]]"
Below is a table with Sparta Rotterdam's domestic results since the introduction of the Eredivisie 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
Former coaches
Edgar Chadwick (1915)
Peter Donaghy (1929–30)
Doug Livingstone (1949)
Walter Crook (1950)
Denis Neville (1955–63)
Bill Thompson (1963–66)
Wiel Coerver (1966–69)
Georg Keßler (1970–71)
Elek Schwartz (1971–72)
Jimmy Adamson (1976)
Cor Brom (1976–78)
Mircea Petescu (1978–80)
Joop Brand (1980)
Barry Hughes (1980–83)
Bert Jacobs (1983–84)
Theo Vonk (1984–86)
Barry Hughes (1986–88)
Rob Baan (1988–90)
Rob Jacobs (1991–93)
Han Berger (1993–95)
Henk van Stee (1995)
Henk ten Cate (1995–97)
Hans van der Zee (1997–98)
Jan Everse (1998–99)
Dolf Roks (1999–01)
Willem van Hanegem (2001)
Frank Rijkaard (2001–02)
Fritz Korbach (2003)
Chris Dekker (2003)
Mike Snoei (2003–05)
Adri van Tiggelen (interim) (2005)
Wiljan Vloet (2005–07)
Gert Aandewiel (2007)
Adri van Tiggelen (interim) (2007)
Foeke Booy (2007–09)
Frans Adelaar (2009–10)
Aad de Mos (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–)
See also
Sparta Rotterdam season 2001–02
Sparta Rotterdam season 2002–03
Sparta Rotterdam season 2003–04
References
External links
Official website
Sparta Rotterdam at Football-lineups.com
Statistics
itwm
despartasupporter
Unofficial website in English
