AZ Alkmaar

AZ Alkmaar

AZ was formed on May 10, 1967, as AZ "67 which was the result of a merger between Alkmaar 1954 together with FC Zaanstreek. Alkmaar '54 was established as a professional club in April 1954, to participate as a 10-team NBVB league, created due to the KNVB did not want to create an official league (the KNVB took over in 1955). Alkmaar'54, and later in turn AZ were the first team to play in the first ever professional game in the Netherlands on the 14th of August , 1954. They triumphed the match 3-0 in their home stadium against Venlo in 1954, with Klaas Smit scoring the opening (and three) goals. Following the success in winning Eerste Divisie in 1960-61, the team continued to play for one year as part of the Eredivisie.

FC Zaanstreek had been playing since 1910 under the name of it was known as the Kooger Football Club (KFC). KFC was close to becoming the champions of the national team in 1934, despite the narrow defeat against Ajax at the end of. KFC became a professional team in the year 1955. In 1964, the professional section of KFC was changed to FC Zaanstreek, while the amateurs continued to play under the name of KFC.

Also in 1964, twins Cees along with Klaas Molenaar, who were former trainers and players of KFC and the owners of a rapidly growing appliance retailer chain, attempted to establish a formidable soccer team in Zaanstreek by combining two professional teams in the area: KFC and Zaanlandsche Football Club. After ZFC management resisted this idea however, the Molenaars were able to successfully merge FC Zaanstreek with Alkmaar '54 in the year 1967. FC Zaanstreek had finished 7th and Alkmaar '54 12th in 1966-67 Eerste Divisie. The team was based in Alkmaar however the second team initially was trained and played within Koog aan de Zaan.

In part, due to the hire of costly international players, the club quickly incurred massive debts. In 1972 the Molenaar brothers took over the club and made a huge investment in the club until the AZ '67 team was successful in the latter half of the 1970s and the early 1980s, playing regularly European sports from 1977 until 1982, while also winning the three KNVB Cups over that period.

After four seasons of close-league play, AZ finally became Dutch champions in the year 1981, becoming the only team outside of those of the "big three" consisting of Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV to win the title during a 44-year time span from 1965 until 2009. (when AZ once again won the title of league champions). They won the title using incredible strength, winning 27 out of 34 games, and losing only once, scoring club records of 101 goals, while conceding only 30. The same year, AZ reached the final of the UEFA Cup, losing 5-4 in average to Ipswich Town. The following year, in the European Cup, they lost in the second round by a score of 3-2 in aggregate to Liverpool.

Georg Kessler was AZ's manager during the majority of those years (1978-82) and the most notable players included Kees Kist, the club's top goal scorer with 212 goals, and the first Dutchman to be awarded the European Golden Boot in 1979 when he scored 34 goals over the course of a season. Jan Peters, who played 120 games for AZ during the time period, scoring 30 goals in midfield. Hugo Hovenkamp, who played 239 times in the defence of AZ from 1975 until 1983, in addition to winning his 31 national caps with the Netherlands national team between 1977 and 1983 and participating in every game at UEFA Euro 1980 while an AZ player. Other stars included John Metgod, who spent six years with AZ playing 195 games as a defender. He scored 26 goals, including one with Ipswich Town in the final of the UEFA Cup. Similar to Hovenkamp Metgod was selected in the Dutch team of Euro 1980. In the meantime, Danish forward Kristen Nygaard was a part-time player at AZ and scored the number of goals in 363 games between 1972 until 1982.

Co-owner Cees Molenaar died in 1979. Az's fortunes plummeted after Molenaar's brother Klaas Molenaar, quit the side in the year 1985. After several mid-table finishes during earlier seasons AZ had to be ejected in the year 1988 by the Eredivisie and finished the season with just 28 points after 34 games and being relegated in the Eerste Divisie due to the greater goal differential that of Roda JC. The reason for this was that it came within seven years of the clubs historical domestic double, and was the end of the first run of achievement during its time in Dutch football. The following year, AZ spent much of the following decade in the second division trying to figure out ways to get back to the top tier.

A business partner in Dirk Scheringa in the mid-1990s brought about the return of the club. AZ came back to Eredivisie and won in 1997 and 1998 the Eerste Divisie title. The club was able to achieve consecutive finishes between the middle and upper tiers of the league before finishing third for the 2004/05 Eredivisie season, which was the club's highest place for the last the past 23 years. The club in the spring of 2006 made the move to a new capacity of 17,000 at the venue, AZ Stadion.

Although they were able to play well throughout the season of 2006-07, the AZ team ended with a disappointing end. In the final gameday in the 2006-07 Eredivisie campaign, AZ was ahead of PSV and Ajax in goal difference to be in the lead of league standings however, following their loss in their final game against the 16th-placed the team Excelsior, AZ played with 10 players for the entire 80 minutes. In addition, AZ then lost the KNVB Cup final to Ajax 8-7 following the penalty shoot-out, they also lost to Ajax during two play-offs to be a part of the Champions League. Following the season, important players such as Tim de Cler, Danny Koevermans and Shota Arveladze quit the team.

The remarkable run came to an end in the 2007-08 season. After AZ fell short in an opening group stage game in the group stage against Everton (3-2) at the UEFA Cup, the club's unbeaten streak of 32 home games in European competitions - which ran between 1977 and 2007 - came to an end. AZ suffered a disappointing season, losing the opening round of the KNVB Cup and the group stage of the UEFA Cup, as well as ending the 2007-08 Eredivisie with an unsatisfactory 11th position. The final stage of the season in March 2008 AZ director Louis van Gaal had initially announced his resignation however, after protests from directors and players the club rescinded his resignation.

The 2008-09 season saw an uninspiring start, following two defeats in the opening games to NAC Breda and ADO Den Haag. But, after an 1-0 win against the current league champions PSV, AZ did not lose a game over the following 28 games and also had a streak of 11 straight matches where AZ was unable to concede a goal against an opponent. A few weeks before the conclusion to the campaign, AZ became Eredivisie champions and beat to title challengers Twente and Ajax easily. It was a landmark achievement for the club since this was the first time they had won a title for more than 28 years, and it also signified an opportunity to play in an event known as the UEFA Champions League.

The champions of the league, AZ qualified for the Champions League for only the second time. They were drawn into a group with Arsenal FC, Standard Liege and Olympiacos but managed to only take four points from their six games and was ranked last in their group.

For the 2009-10 season Ronald Koeman succeeded Louis van Gaal who had left to take over Bayern Munich after leading AZ to the league championship. Koeman was officially appointed on May 17, 2009, however, on the 5th of December AZ announced that he would not in charge of the club following a loss in seven out of the first sixteen games. The former Rangers as well as Zenit Saint Petersburg manager Dick Advocaat was appointed manager for the remaining portion of the season. In the time of Advocaat, AZ achieved solid results and was able to secure European soccer for following season.

The 2010-11 season saw AZ named Gertjan Verbeek as the new manager. They ended the 2010-11 Eredivisie in fourth position and thus secured Europa League football for the following season. In the KNVB Cup, AZ reached the final eight teams, but they were defeated by their Ajax, their main rivals Ajax with a score of 1-0. AZ also came in third place on the Europa League group, thus not qualifying for the knockout round of the competition.

In the season 2011-12, AZ finished fourth in the Eredivisie However, the club performed more well in cups competitions, making the semi-finals of the KNVB Cup (losing to Heracles after extra time) and the quarter-finals of the Europa League. In the latter competition, the club eventually fell to Valencia after beating Udinese, Anderlecht, Malmo FF, Austria Wien, Metalist Kharkiv, Aalesund and Baumit Jablonec to reach that stage.

On the 21st December 2011 in the quarter-finals in the 11-12 KNVB Cup, a 19-year-old Ajax fan entered the Amsterdam Arena pitch in the 36th minute. Ajax winning 1-0, and attacking AZ goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado. The fan fell in the air and Alvarado struck the Ajax fan two times which led the referee to show the goalie an red card. In the aftermath, AZ manager Gertjan Verbeek directed his players to leave the field for the dressing rooms in protest. The game resumed on the 19th of January, 2012 after which Alvarado's red card was rescinded; AZ won 3-2.

The 2012-13 season began at the Europa League with a qualifying play-off with Guus Hiddink's Anzhi Makhachkala. AZ was defeated 6-0 on an aggregate basis. Unfortunately, AZ was 10th at the end of the 2012-13 Eredivisie but the club was crowned its 2013-13 KNVB Cup after defeating PSV by a score of 2-1 during the championship final. Since they were cup winners, AZ automatically qualified for the 2013-14 Europa League.

The month of September 2013 one day after beating PSV which was at the time the league's leaders, Verbeek was dismissed as first team manager of the club for "a lack of communication" between players and the management. The club replaced him with Dick Advocaat for the remainder of the season, until an permanent replacement could be located. Advocaat was able to take AZ into the semifinals of the KNVB Cup, the quarter-finals of the Europa League and eighth in the league. However, they lost the league to Groningen at the Europa League play-off final round (their their 58th game during the year, which is a Club record).

The 2014-15 season started with a new managerin the former Heerenveen manager as well as Ajax legend Marco van Basten. But, only three matches into the season Van Basten resigned as manager to become assistant manager under Alex Pastoor, citing heavy stress as the primary reason. Pastoor was interim manager for two games during Van Basten's absence. Pastoor was appointed manager on the 16th of September. However, negotiations for the contract failed and he resigned from the club only two days after. A week later, John van den Brom was appointed manager. under Van den Brom, AZ quickly climbed to the sub-topand ended the season in third position and surpassed Feyenoord in the final season's matchday, and qualifying for Europa League in 2015-16. Europa League.

The 2015-16 Eredivisie began with AZ selling a majority their first-teamers from previous seasons in the transfer season. As a result, AZ bought players from other Dutch clubs, most notably Vincent Janssen from Almere City and Alireza Jahanbakhsh of NEC as well as Ben Rienstra from PEC Zwolle. In December, the club announced that free player Ron Vlaar signed a contract to run until the end of the season. He had been training at the team for a couple of weeks prior to. Vlaar quickly became the team captain and played a key role in lifting AZ from tenth position to fourth place at the top of the table. In this time the New signing Vincent Janssen scored 27 goals for the club which earned his Eredivisie top goalscorer accolade. The 15-16 KNVB Cup, AZ made it to the semi-finalsbut falling 3-1 against Feyenoord. AZ was able to win the initial two qualifying rounds in order to qualify to play in the 15-16 Europa League group stage, but they were the bottom of their group.

The start in the season 2017-17 Eredivisie, AZ sold last season's top performer Vincent Janssen to Tottenham Hotspur and the long-time player Markus Henriksen to Hull City. For the 2017-17 Europa League, AZ finished second in Group D and made it through in the stage of group play for only the third time in five seasons.

Following a superb season that saw AZ defeated league leaders Ajax home and away supported by the consistent performance of young academy players like Teun Koopmeiners Myron Boadu Calvin Stengs and Owen Wijndal, the season ended early due to the impact of the COVID-19 virus. With Ajax on top of the chart, AZ were given second spot based on goal difference and then were awarded Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round.

The team's poor start to the 2020/21 Eredivisie campaign was a case of AZ draw five times in a row but they eventually picked up the win against RKC Waalwijk on November 1, 2020.

AZ had a tough time in European tournaments. They began good with a 3-1 extra-time win against Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League qualifying matches, but just a few months later, they lost 2-0 against Dynamo Kiev, seeing them slide back into Europa League. After winning in the clash between Napoli and Rijeka in the early phase of the pool AZ appeared to be on the right track to make it through, but when they lost against Real Sociedad away, and the reverse match that ended in a 0-0 draw, AZ's task became much more difficult. A 1-1 draw against Napoli and a 0-0 draw with Rijeka meant all that was needed to be accomplished to advance was to beat away to Rijeka. However , the departure that week prior to the game of the manager Arne Slot resulted in an unorganized team losing 2 to Rijeka and ended their European goal.

As of 25 July 2022

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	DEN	Peter Vindahl Jensen
2	DF	JPN	Yukinari Sugawara
3	DF	GRE	Pantelis Chatzidiakos
4	DF	NED	Bruno Martins Indi (captain)
5	DF	HUN	Milos Kerkez
6	MF	NOR	Fredrik Midtsjø
7	FW	DEN	Jens Odgaard
9	FW	GRE	Vangelis Pavlidis
10	MF	NED	Dani de Wit
11	FW	SWE	Jesper Karlsson
12	GK	NED	Hobie Verhulst
13	GK	NED	Sem Westerveld
14	MF	NED	Peer Koopmeiners
15	DF	NOR	Aslak Fonn Witry
17	FW	TUR	Yusuf Barası
18	MF	NOR	Håkon Evjen
19	FW	NED	Jelle Duin
20	MF	NED	Jordy Clasie
21	FW	NED	Ernest Poku
22	DF	NED	Maxim Dekker
23	FW	SWE	Mayckel Lahdo
24	MF	NED	Tijjani Reijnders
27	DF	BEL	Zinho Vanheusden (on loan from Inter)
28	MF	NED	Zico Buurmeester
31	DF	NED	Sam Beukema
34	DF	NED	Mees de Wit

As part of participating in Eerste Divisie The reserve team of AZ trains and plays home matches within Zaanstad.

As per detail below.

AZ will play games at home in the AFAS Stadion situated in the southern region within the city of Alkmaar. It is controlled by the team was completed in 2006 and was renamed the former Alkmaarderhout stadium as it became the DSB Stadion. The stadium is currently able to accommodate an capacity of 17 023. In the early stages of its construction in the beginning, the name Victorie Stadion was often used in reference to the Dutch War of Independence, the expression "In Alkmaar begint de victorie" (Victory commences in Alkmaar) specifically. However, until now, the name hasn't been officially put into use, with the board making use of sponsorship deals as a result of financial reasons. But, even to today the name has an impressive amount of supporters.

To increase the revenue, AZ's board directors made a decision to increase capacity at the stadium to at minimum 30,000. Sometime in the future. The extension will be completed through the construction of a second level to three stands. The main stand, which includes all tech areas as well as VIP, sponsor along with media and VIP facilities, will continue to remain. The plans are on the back burner in the wake of the DSB bankruptcy, and there is currently no plan to expand the capacity.

Then, in October of 2009 the sponsor DSB Bank was declared bankrupt. The name of the stadium was temporary switched from DSB Stadion to AZ Stadion because it was thought to be not appropriate because the stadium was associated to a non-existent bank. In February of 2010 the stadium's new principal sponsor was identified in the the construction services company BUKO which is based in Beverwijk.

The following year, during the season of 2010-11, AFAS Software took over as the stadium's official sponsor. The name that is currently used for the stadium is AFAS Stadion.

On the 10th of August, 2019 the stadium's roof partially collapsed. The stadium was not damaged in the incident. In the end, AZ continued to play for the remainder of the season playing home games in The Cars Jeans Stadion in The Hague while the roof was being removed. They then getting back to the venue on December, 2019, and beating Ajax by 1-0 in their very first game back. AZ continued to play throughout the season in 2019/20, but the COVID-19 virus cut it short, and without a roof. The 2020/21 season was the first time the roof was replaced and supported by 20 crane-like arms that span three sides as well as a mega truss that was placed on the stadium's central stand. The stadium that was renovated that also featured an increase in capacity of 2500 seats, for a capacity of 19,500 seats and was officially inaugurated on the 11th of September 2021, just before the game at home against PSV.

As per detail below.

Eredivisie

• Winners : 1980–81, 2008–09
• Runners-up : 1979–80, 2005–06, 2019–20

Eerste Divisie

• Winners : 1959–601, 1995–96, 1997–98
• Runners-up : 1956–571, 1967–68, 1971–72

Tweede Divisie

• Winners : 1955–562
• Runners-up : 1963–641

KNVB Cup

• Winners : 1977–78, 1980–81, 1981–82, 2012–13
• Runners-up : 2006–07, 2016–17, 2017–18

Johan Cruyff Shield

• Winners : 2009
• Runners-up : 2013

UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League

• Runners-up : 1980–81
• Semi-finalists : 2004–05
• Quarter-finalists : 2006–07, 2011–12, 2013–14

The table below is containing the results of AZ's international competitions during the previous seasons.

As of 13 January 2021

Rank	Country	Team	Points
64		Lille OSC	30.000
65		Spartak Moscow	29.500
66		AZ	28.500
67		Gent	27.500
68		Krasnodar	26.500

Here is the table that lists Arizona's domestic records from the time of the first professional football match in 1956.

The players listed below have a the senior international cap of their nations. The players whose names are listed were representing their country while playing for AZ and the predecessor AZ'67.

Detail of the coaches as below mentioned.

•  Gerrit van Wijhe (1954–1956)
•  Kick Smit (1956–1958)
•  Ludwig Veg (1 July 1958 – 30 June 1960)
•  Piet de Wolf (1960–1961)
•  Bonnie Bult (1961–1962)
•  Arie Rentenaar (1962–1963)
•  Ludwig Veg (1 July 1963 – 30 June 1965)
•  Barry Hughes (1 July 1965 – 30 June 1967)

•  Bob Kelly (1955–1956)
•  Wim Blokland (1956–1958)
•  Klaas Molenaar (1958–1960)
•  Toon Bruins Slot (1960–1963)
•  Joop de Kubber (1963–1964)
•  Piet de Wolf (1964–1965)
•  Toon van den Enden (1965–1966)

•  Lesley Talbot (1 July 1967 – 30 June 1968)
•  Wim Blokland (1968–1969)
•  Robert Heinz (1969–1971)
•  Cor van der Hart (1 July 1971 – 30 June 1973)
•  Joop Brand (1 July 1973 – 30 June 1976)
•  Hans Kraay Sr. (1 July 1976 – 30 June 1977)
•  Jan Notermans (1977)
•  Cor van der Hart (1 July 1977 – 30 June 1978)
•  Georg Keßler (1 July 1978 – 30 June 1982)
•  Hans Eijkenbroek (1 July 1982 – 30 June 1983)
•  Piet de Visser (1 July 1983 – 30 June 1985)
•  Joop Brand (1 July 1985 – 30 June 1986)
•  Han Berger (1 July 1986 – 31 December 1986)

•  Hans Eijkenbroek (1987 – 30 June 1989)
•  Hans van Doorneveld (1 July 1989 – 30 June 1990)
•  Henk Wullems (1 July 1990 – 30 June 1993)
•  Piet Schrijvers (1 July 1993 – 30 June 1994)
•  Theo Vonk (1 July 1994 – 28 February 1997)
•  Hans de Koning (interim) (28 February 1997 – 30 June 1997)
•  Willem van Hanegem (1 July 1997 – 30 June 1999)
•  Gerard van der Lem (1 July 1999 – 30 March 2000)
•  Henk van Stee (31 March 2000 – 30 October 2002)
•  Co Adriaanse (30 October 2002 – 30 June 2005)
•  Louis van Gaal (1 July 2005 – 30 June 2009)
•  Ronald Koeman (1 July 2009 – 5 December 2009)
•  Martin Haar (interim) (5 December 2009 – 10 December 2009)
•  Dick Advocaat (10 December 2009 – 30 June 2010)
•  Gertjan Verbeek (1 July 2010 – 29 September 2013)
•  Martin Haar (interim) (29 September 2013 – 15 October 2013)
•  Dick Advocaat (15 October 2013 – 30 June 2014)
•  Marco van Basten (30 June 2014 – 16 September 2014)
•  John van den Brom (29 September 2014 – 30 June 2019)
•  Arne Slot (1 July 2019  – 5 December 2020)
•  Pascal Jansen (5 December 2020 – present )