Football Season Guide

Sparta Rotterdam

In


Denzel James (att)( Noordwijk); Jurgen Mattheij (def)(Excelsior); Bryan Smeets (att)(TOP Oss); Laros Duarte (mid)(PSV U21); Dante Rigo (mid)(PSV on loan); Khalid Karami (def)(Vitesse on loan); Abdallah Aberkane (def)(Ajax U19); Ariel Harush (gk)(Beer Sheva);

Out


Gregor Breinburg (mid)(De Graafschap); Édouard Duplan (att)(released); Roy Kortsmit (r)(gk)(released); Janne Saksela (sp)(def)(released); Giliano Wijnaldum (def)(released);

After two years in Eerste Divisie Sparta Rotterdam are back in the league that best suits them. They are in fact one of the oldest football clubs in the Netherlands (founded in 1888!) and can also boast an impressive record having won 6 titles (the last in 1959) and 3 national cups (the last in 1966). Last year they ended the regular season in 2nd position (11 points from the champions, Twente). In the playoffs' second round they defeated Oss, while in the final they had the better of De Graafschap, who had finished 17th in Eredivisie. The main architect of the promotion was undoubtedly Henk Fraser, a coach capable of modifying the system of play according to the opponent and to the men available: so last year he alternated 3 and 4 man defence, playing either with 1, 2 or 3 forwards. During the summer transfer market they held most of the first string players, aiming above all at reinforcing the squad with the inclusion of midfielder Dante Rigo on loan from PSV, former Excelsior defender Jurgen Mattheij and a few other promising players.

Target


Being a newly promoted team the minimum goal is to stay in Eredivisie: however, considering the blazon of the team, it is reasonable to expect something more. Furthermore the coach knows the environment well and has a solid team at his disposal with an interesting attack (last year they were the best attack of Eerste Divisie with 78 goals).