KV MechelenKV Mechelen hold a unique place in Belgian football: they remain the only Belgian club ever to have won a major European trophy. Founded in 1904 in the city of Mechelen, between Antwerp and Brussels, the club spent decades yo-yoing between divisions before enjoying two golden eras - one in the 1940s and a far more famous one in the late 1980s.
That second golden age began in 1987, when Mechelen won the Belgian Cup, beating RFC Liege 1-0 in the final. The trophy earned the club a place in the following season's European Cup Winners' Cup, and under Dutch coach Aad de Mos, with a squad built around goalkeeper Michel Preudhomme, defender Lei Clijsters and Israeli winger Eli Ohana, Mechelen defied the odds all the way to the final. There, on 11 May 1988 at the Stade de la Meinau in Strasbourg, they faced the defending champions and heavy favourites Ajax. A single second-half header from Piet den Boer, set up by Ohana, was enough to give Mechelen a 1-0 victory and the biggest trophy in the club's history. The following season the club added the European Super Cup, beating PSV Eindhoven over two legs - completing a run of continental success no other Belgian side has matched since.
Mechelen have also won the Belgian league title four times, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, along with a second Belgian Cup. Known as Malinwa or De Kakkers and playing in yellow and red, the club's home has stood on the same site behind a former army barracks since 1911, which is why fans still call the ground Achter de Kazerne (Behind the Barracks) regardless of its changing commercial name.