FC GroningenIn the old Oosterpark Stadium in Groningen one stand bore the name of Tonny van Leeuwen, a goalkeeper who died at the age of 28, a day before FC Groningen was formally founded. That detail shows how firmly the club grows out of local tradition. It was founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor to GVAV, a team that had been one of the founder members of the Eredivisie in 1956, and its identity has from the start rested on the attachment of the north of the Netherlands to its own football.
Football in Groningen has even older roots. In 1887 pupils of the local grammar school founded Be Quick, who became Dutch champions in 1920, shortly after clubs from the northern provinces gained the right to take part in the national play-offs. In time, though, GVAV took over as the leading side in the city, moving in 1933 to the newly opened Oosterpark ground. It originally had only 524 seats, but it served as the club's home for decades, until 2005. GVAV embraced professionalism in 1954, and over time took the position of the city's leading club from Be Quick.
The early years of FC Groningen were not easy. After a debut season in the Eredivisie the club dropped to the second division because of financial difficulties, returned to the top flight in 1979–80 as Eerste Divisie champions and stayed there for almost twenty years, until relegation in 1997–98. Its best league result is third place in 1990–91, showing that a club from the north could compete with the powers of Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Rotterdam.
The most memorable evening in Europe came in 1983–84, when Groningen made their UEFA Cup debut. In the first round they drew Atlético Madrid. After losing the first leg the team won 3–0 in Groningen and went through 4–2 on aggregate. In the next round they were knocked out by Inter Milan. The club later appeared in European competitions many times, but never reached the group stage of the continent's premier competition.
The biggest success at home came in 2015. The team coached by Erwin van de Looi beat PEC Zwolle 2–0 in the KNVB Cup final, winning the first and only national cup in the club's history. Earlier, in 1988–89, it had reached the final of the competition but lost. The 2015 win brought a place in the Europa League and set off celebrations across the city.
For decades the club has been known for developing talent. Arjen Robben joined as a teenager and played there until 2002, before moving to PSV, and he briefly returned in 2020. Luis Suárez also broke through at Groningen, starting his European career there in 2006–07, and Virgil van Dijk and the brothers Ronald and Erwin Koeman, whose father Martin Koeman defended for GVAV, also played for the club.
Since 2006 FC Groningen have played at the Euroborg, where the atmosphere stands out among Dutch grounds because many supporters are students. The ground is sometimes called "De Groene Hel" (the Green Hell), and the green and white colours are those of the city. The motto "Trots van het Noorden", the Pride of the North, best expresses the club's character. After relegation from the Eredivisie in 2022–23 the team returned to it in 2024, and FC Groningen remains a fixture of Dutch football, the pride of the north of the country.