Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede.
The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions, Sportclub Enschede and Enschedese Boys.
They were the holders of the 2011 KNVB Cup and Johan Cruyff Shield trophies, and were Eredivisie champions in the 2009–10 season; the team has also finished as Eredivisie runner-up twice, was runner-up in the 1974–75 UEFA Cup, and has won the KNVB Cup three times.
Twente's home ground since 1998 is De Grolsch Veste.
Since 2019, the club has played in the Eredivisie, the top division of Dutch football.
History
Foundation and early years
The club was formed in 1965 as a merger of two professional clubs, Sportclub Enschede and the Enschedese Boys.
One of such predecessors, SC Enschede, had also won a single Dutch championship in 1926.Netherlands – Champions – RSSSF
The first successes of the club started just after the merger of 1965, under the innovative coach Kees Rijvers.
Twente finished third in 1969, fourth in 1970, fifth in 1971, third in 1972 and again in 1973.
The team's key figures were local heroes, such as Epi Drost, Eddy Achterberg, Kick van der Vall and Theo Pahlplatz.
Their finest Eredivisie season was 1973–74, in which Twente battled for the Dutch championship with Feyenoord.
A head-to-head confrontation in the final game of the season, in Rotterdam, where Feyenoord prevailed 3–2, sealed Twente's fate in second.
Nonetheless, this earned the side a position in the UEFA Cup.
The Tukkers (as people from the Dutch region of Twente are generally called) nearly made the very most out of that UEFA Cup ticket—after beating Juventus in the semi-finals, Twente lost to German side Borussia Mönchengladbach in the finals (0–0, 1–5).
In 1977, Twente won its first trophy, the KNVB Cup, after beating PEC Zwolle 3–0.Netherlands Cup Finals – RSSSF The 1980s and 1990s
After enjoying some success in the 1970s, prospects went downhill for Twente, with the club ultimately suffering relegation to the Eerste Divisie, the Dutch second division, in 1983.
However, Twente returned to the top flight a year later, but the club soon became known for their "impressive" amount of 1–1 and 0–0 draws.
This new reputation as "boring Twente" overshadowed the fact that the club kept qualifying for European football on a fairly regular basis, with five times since 1985.
Re-establishment then followed in the 1990s: German coach Hans Meyer led Twente to third-place in the Eredivisie of 1997 and into the third round of the 1997–98 UEFA Cup the next season.
On 24 May 2001, Twente clinched their second triumph in the KNVB Cup after beating PSV in the final after being 3–1 down in the penalty shoot-out.
The season after, Twente crashed out of the Cup at hand of Ajax's second team.
Additionally, results in the league were poor, with hardcore Twente fans Ultras Vak-P eventually going on a rampage at the club's brand-new stadium out of frustration.
From bankruptcy to national champions (2002–2011)
The club's mother corporation (FC Twente '65) was declared bankrupt in the 2002–03 season, almost leading to the end of the club's existence.
The club, now chaired by ambitious businessman Joop Munsterman, survived such problems and made it to another KNVB Cup final in 2004, and then finished in fourth place in the league table in 2006–07.
In the 2007–08 season, Twente placed fourth and won the play-offs for a ticket to the Champions League qualifiers by defeating Ajax in the play-off finals.
In the 2008–09 season, Twente hired former England manager Steve McClaren as its new head coach.
Under his tenure, unseeded Twente entered the draw for the third qualifying round of the Champions League, being drawn against seeded Arsenal.
The two legs were played at home on 13 August and away on 27 August 2008.
Twente lost 6–0 on aggregate, resulting in their elimination from the Champions League and subsequent entry of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup first round.
At the domestic level, Twente finished second in the Eredivisie, 11 points behind champions AZ, and again secured entry to the Champions League qualifying rounds as Dutch runners-up, as well as KNVB Cup finalists (defeated by Heerenveen).
The 2009–10 season started with Twente being knocked out of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round after a 1–1 aggregate draw against Sporting CP, which sent the Portuguese side through on away goals.
The club was then admitted to the Europa League, where it enjoyed a relatively successful path that ended in a 4–2 aggregate defeat at the hands of Werder Bremen in the round of 32.
At the domestic level, Twente won its first Eredivisie title at the end of a campaign in which they lost just twice, winning 16 of 17 at home.
The championship was confirmed on the final day of the season when they beat NAC 2–0 away, making Steve McClaren the first Englishman to guide a Dutch team to a national title since Bobby Robson in 1992.
The victory qualified Twente for the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League group stage, the club's first appearance in the competition.
At the end of the season, McClaren resigned as the manager, moving to German side VfL Wolfsburg, and was replaced by the Belgian Michel Preud'homme.
Twente continued their success by having a good run during the 2010–11 KNVB Cup, reaching the final on 8 May 2011 at De Kuip.
Twente recovered from  down to defeat Ajax 3–2 in extra time with a winner from Marc Janko, which claimed the club's third KNVB Cup title.
One week later, the two teams faced each other in Amsterdam in the final round of matches in the Eredivisie, with Twente leading by a point.
However, Ajax gained revenge for the Cup defeat by winning 3–1 to claim their first title in seven years.
The start of the 2011–12 season, under Preud'homme's successor Co Adriaanse, featured another clash between the duo in the Amsterdam Arena, this time with Twente winning 2–1 in their second successive Johan Cruijff Shield supercup victory.
Financial problems return
During the 2014–15 Eredivisie season, Twente found themselves in financial trouble again, forcing the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) to deduct the club three points from the side in March 2015.KNVB straft FC Twente met puntenaftrek – NOS  Club President Munsterman, who had announced to leave the club at the end of the season, then already quit the club on 1 April 2015 over allegations of financial mismanagement.Joop Munsterman alsnog per direct weg bij FC Twente – RTV Oost  The team fired 18 employeesFC Twente: Ontslag voor 18 medewerkers – Tubantia  and stopped with their scouting department after they received a second three-point penalty in April 2015.FC Twente stopt ook profscouting
– AD  They also decided to withdraw Jong Twente from the Eerste Divisie for the 2015–16 season and the women's professional team was relocated in a separate foundation.FC Twente stopt met beloftenteam in Jupiler League – FOXSports  On 18 May 2016 the KNVB declared its intent to relegate FC Twente to the Eerste Divisie.
This was however still subject to appeal by FC TwenteFC Twente face eredivisie relegation of finances – skysports.com and on 17 June 2016 the KNVB appeal committee decided that Twente can remain in the Eredivisie.
At the end of the 2017–18 Eredivisie season, Twente relegated to the Eerste Divisie by finishing at the bottom of the table at the end of the season, after having fired two managers that season.
The 2018–19 Eerste Divisie season was the first outside of the top flight for 34 years.
Affiliated clubs
The following clubs are affiliated with Twente:
Dayton Dutch LionsSamenwerking met Dutch Lions FC getekend, officiële website (14 januari 2011)
Qarabağ"Qarabağ" "Tvente" ilə əməkdaşlıq edəcək   `Qarabağ` – `Tvente` : iki qardaş, bir yumruq!
KozármislenySamenwerking met Koz, officiële website (2 juni 2010)
Heracles AlmeloSamenwerking jeugdopleiding voortgezet, officiële website (16 juni 2009)
Go Ahead Eagles
Stranraer
Stadium
thumb|170px|right|The gate at the stadium symbolizes the history.
De Grolsch Veste, formerly named Arke Stadion, is the official stadium of FC Twente and is owned by the club.
It is located at the Business & Science Park, near the University of Twente and between the city centers of Enschede and Hengelo.
It has a spectator capacity of 30,205 with a standard pitch heating system and has a promenade instead of fences around the stands.
De Grolsch Veste replaced the old Diekman Stadion as Twente's home ground on 22 March 1998.
Initially, plans had been afoot to expand and renovate the old and now demolished Diekman stadium.
However, with a growing fan capacity and with arguments that the location of the Diekman stadium was not strategic enough, the idea was conceived to build a new arena for the Twente fans.
The Diekman ground also faced problems with its seating plans as a result of the FIFA regulations, which impose a requirement to construct a seating stand behind each goal.
The cost of the construction is estimated to be around 33 million guilders, and the stadium took 14 months to complete, with its foundation stone having been laid on 31 January 1997.
Due to the tight budget available, the layout of the stadium was constructed so that future expansions are possible without the necessity to tear down entire existing stands.
On 10 May 1998, the first match played at the stadium resulted in a 3–0 victory by the home team against PSV in an Eredivisie match.
Initially, the Grolsch Veste had a capacity of 13,500 spectators, which was later reduced to 13,250.
As of the start of the 2008–09 season, the stadium has been expanded with a partial second ring increasing the capacity to 24,000 seats.
After a second expansion, completed in 2011, the current capacity became 30,205.
The recording of "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Gerry and the Pacemakers is sung along in the whole stadium before every kick-off.
On 7 July 2011, a section of the stadium roof collapsed whilst expansion work was taking place at the stadium, killing two people.FC Twente stadium collapses, killing one and hospitalising 10 Current squad
https://www.fctwente.nl/teams/eerste-selectie/selectie-2021-2022 Out on loan
Honours
National
Eredivisie
Winners: 2009–10
Runners-up: 1973–74, 2008–09, 2010–11
Eerste Divisie
Winners: 2018–19
KNVB Cup
Winners: 1976–77, 2000–01, 2010–11
Runners-up: 1974–75, 1978–79, 2003–04, 2008–09
Johan Cruyff Shield
Winners: 2010, 2011
Runners-up: 2001
International
UEFA Intertoto Cup
Winners: 2006FC Twente UEFA.com
UEFA Cup
Runners-up: 1974–75
Domestic results
ImageSize = width:800 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:01/01/2019 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1990 Colors =  id:bl1 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.3)  id:bl2 value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5)  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:6  from:01/01/1991 till:01/01/1992 shift:(0,-4) text:6  from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/1993 shift:(0,-4) text:5  from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 shift:(0,-4) text:5  from:01/01/1994 till:01/01/1995 shift:(0,-4) text:5  from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1996 shift:(0,-4) text:10  from:01/01/1996 till:01/01/1997 shift:(0,-4) text:3  from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/1998 shift:(0,-4) text:9  from:01/01/1998 till:01/01/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:8  from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:6  from:01/01/2000 till:01/01/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:11  from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:12  from:01/01/2002 till:01/01/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:11  from:01/01/2003 till:01/01/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:8  from:01/01/2004 till:01/01/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:6  from:01/01/2005 till:01/01/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:9  from:01/01/2006 till:01/01/2007 shift:(0,-4)
text:4  from:01/01/2007 till:01/01/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:4  from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:2  from:01/01/2009 till:01/01/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:1  from:01/01/2010 till:01/01/2011 shift:(0,-4) text:2  from:01/01/2011 till:01/01/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:6  from:01/01/2012 till:01/01/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:6  from:01/01/2013 till:01/01/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:3  from:01/01/2014 till:01/01/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:10  from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:13  from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:7  from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:18  from:01/01/2018 till:01/01/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/2018 color:bl2 shift:(0,13) text: "[[Eredivisie]]"  from:01/01/2018 till:01/01/2019 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: "[[Eerste Divisie]]"
Below is a table with Twente's domestic results since the introduction of the Eredivisie in 1956.
Coaches
Friedrich Donenfeld (1 July 1965 – 30 June 1966)
Kees Rijvers (1 July 1966 – 30 June 1972)
Spitz Kohn (1 July 1972 – 30 September 1979)
Hennie Hollink (1980–81)
Rob Groener (1981–82)
Spitz Kohn (1 November 1982 – 30 June 1983)
Fritz Korbach (1 July 1983 – 30 June 1986)
Theo Vonk (1 July 1986 – 30 June 1992)
Rob Baan (1 July 1992 – 30 June 1994)
Issy ten Donkelaar (1 July 1994 – 19 November 1995)
Fred Rutten (interim) (16 November 1995 – 15 January 1996)
Hans Meyer (15 January 1996 – 5 September 1999)
Fred Rutten (6 September 1999 – 30 June 2001)
John van 't Schip (1 July 2001 – 10 July 2002)
René Vandereycken (24 July 2002 – 17 May 2004)
Rini Coolen (1 July 2004 – 1 February 2006)
Jan van Staa (interim) (1 February 2006 – 30 June 2006)
Fred Rutten (1 July 2006 – 30 June 2008)
Steve McClaren (20 June 2008 – 30 June 2010)
Michel Preud'homme (1 July 2010 – 30 June 2011)
Co Adriaanse (1 July 2011 – 3 January 2012)
Steve McClaren (5 January 2012 – 26 February 2013)
Alfred Schreuder (interim) (26 February 2013 – 1 April 2013)
Michel Jansen (interim) (1 April 2013 – 30 June 2014)
Alfred Schreuder (1 July 2014 – 31 August 2015)
René Hake (31 August 2015 – 18 October 2017)
Marino Pušić (interim) (18 October 2017 – 29 October 2017)
Gertjan Verbeek (29 October 2017 – 26 March 2018)
Marino Pušić (26 March 2018 – 31 May 2019)
Gonzalo Recoba (1 July 2019 – 1 June 2020)
Ron Jans (17 June 2020 – present)
Notable (former) players
The players below had senior international cap(s) for their respective countries.
Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for FC Twente.
Lindon Selahi
Marko Arnautović
Tyronne Ebuehi
Marc Janko
Roland Kollmann
David Carney
Jason Čulina
Nikita Rukavytsya
Luke Wilkshire
Dedryck Boyata
Jurgen Cavens
Nacer Chadli
Stein Huysegems
Frédéric Peiremans
Danilo
Nikolay Mihaylov
Rahim Ouédraogo
Cristian Cuevas
Felipe Gutiérrez
Bryan Ruiz
Dario Vujičević
Václav Černý
Hans Aabech
Michael Birkedal
Andreas Bjelland
Kasper Kusk
Claus Nielsen
Kenneth Perez
Jan Sørensen
Per Steffensen
Përparim Hetemaj
Mika Lipponen
Antti Sumiala
Helmut Rahn
Peter Niemeyer
Rico Steinmann
Giorgi Aburjania
Giorgi Gakhokidze
Prince Polley
Konstantinos Loumpoutis
Antal Nagy
Arnar Viðarsson
Nashat Akram
Cheick Tioté
Ryo Miyaichi
Spitz Kohn
Jesús Corona
Luka Đorđević
Karim El Ahmadi
Ismaïl Aissati
Faouzi El Brazi
Anouar Diba
Adil Ramzi
Hakim Ziyech
Otman Bakkal
Ronald de Boer
Sander Boschker
John Bosman
Paul Bosvelt
Edson Braafheid
Wout Brama
Arnold Bruggink
Romano Denneboom
Epi Drost
Eljero Elia
Orlando Engelaar
Leroy Fer
Kees van Ierssel
Theo Janssen
Collins John
Ola John
Luuk de Jong
René van de Kerkhof
Willy van de Kerkhof
Denny Landzaat
Adam Maher
Andy van der Meyde
Michael Mols
Arnold Mühren
Youri Mulder
René Notten
Arthur Numan
Heini Otto
Niels Oude Kamphuis
Theo Pahlplatz
Marcel Peeper
Quincy Promes
Fred Rutten
Dick Schoenaker
Theo Snelders
Frans Thijssen
Kick van der Vall
Dwight Tiendalli
Orlando Trustfull
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
Paul Verhaegh
Sander Westerveld
Peter Wisgerhof
Hallvar Thoresen
Renato Tapia
Mateusz Klich
Daniel Fernandes
Dmitri Bulykin
Scott Booth
Slobodan Rajković
Dušan Tadić
Miroslav Stoch
Haris Vučkić
Kamohelo Mokotjo
Bernard Parker
Emir Bajrami
Kennedy Bakırcıoğlu
Rasmus Bengtsson
Daniel Majstorović
Sharbel Touma
Blaise Nkufo
Oguchi Onyewu
Roberto Rosales
Zvonko Bego
Spira Grujić
Mitar Mrkela
Spasoje Samardžić
Top scorers
Women's section
The women's section of Twente was founded in 2007 for the creation of the Eredivisie as new top-level league in the Netherlands.
Twente played the opening match of the league.
After three midfield positions in the first three years, Twente won the championship in 2010–11 and played the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2011–12.
See also
Dutch football league teams
Derby of Twente
Jong FC Twente
References
External links
;Official websites
FCTwente.nl Official website of FC Twente
FC Twente TV Official website FC Twente TV (No membership required)
UEFA.com The FC Twente Story
;General fan sites
FC Twente Online
FC Twente Online English Section
Vak-P
Twentefans
FC Twente.nu
;News sites
SkySports.com / FC Twente
Goal.com / FC Twente
Football-Lineups.com / FC Twente
