AZ Alkmaar - Wikipedia

Dutch professional football golf club This article is about the men ‘s association football team. For the now-dissolved women ‘s team, see AZ Alkmaar ( women )
Football club

Reading: AZ Alkmaar – Wikipedia

Alkmaar Zaanstreek ( dutch : [ ˈɑl ( ə ) kmaːr ˈzaːnstreːk ] ), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ ( pronounce [ aːˈzɛt ] ), is a dutch professional football clubhouse from Alkmaar and the Zaanstreek. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest master football league in the Netherlands, and hosts family matches at the AFAS Stadion. AZ has won the Eredivisie doubly, in 1980–81 and 2008–09. In the same temper as their first league entitle, they besides reached the UEFA Cup Final, which they lost to Ipswich Town. In summation, the team has won the KNVB Cup on four occasions and one Johan Cruyff Shield .

history [edit ]

1910–1972 : foundation and inaugural years [edit ]

AZ was founded on 10 May 1967 as AZ ’67, the solution of a amalgamation of Alkmaar ’54 and FC Zaanstreek. [ 1 ] Alkmaar ’54 was founded as a professional team in April 1954 to play in the 10-team NBVB league, created because the KNVB refused to organize a professional league ( the KNVB took over in 1955 ). Alkmaar ’54, and by extension AZ, played the very first professional match in the Netherlands : on 14 August 1954, they won 3–0 at base against Venlo ’54, with Klaas Smit scoring the first ( and third ) goal. [ 2 ] After winning the Eerste Divisie in 1960–61, it played one class in the Eredivisie. FC Zaanstreek had been playing since 1910 as the Kooger Football Club ( KFC ). KFC had closely become national champion in 1934 through a narrow personnel casualty to Ajax in the finals. [ note 1 ] The team became professional in 1955. In 1964 the professional separate of KFC was renamed FC Zaanstreek, while the amateurs played on as KFC. besides in 1964, the brothers Cees and Klaas Molenaar, former players and trainers for KFC and owners of a growing appliance store chain, sought to create a herculean football team in Zaanstreek by merging the two local professional teams : KFC and Zaanlandsche Football Club. After the ZFC leadership thwarted this attempt, the Molenaars successfully merged FC Zaanstreek with Alkmaar ’54 in 1967. FC Zaanstreek had finished 7th and Alkmaar ’54 12th in 1966–67 Eerste Divisie. The team would be based in Alkmaar, though the second team originally trained and played in Koog aan de Zaan. [ 1 ] [ 4 ]

1972–1985 : The Molenaar years [edit ]

partially through the lease of expensive foreign players, the modern clubhouse soon acquired large debts. In 1972, the Molenaar brothers bailed it out and invested heavily in the cabaret, to the point that AZ ’67 were successful in the late 1970s and early ’80s, regularly playing european football from 1977 to 1982 while besides winning three KNVB Cups over that period. After four close league campaigns, AZ last became dutch champions in 1981, becoming the alone team early than the “ boastful three ” of Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV to do so in a 44-year period spanning from 1965 to 2009 ( when AZ once again won the league deed ). They won the title with overpowering world power, winning 27 of 34 matches and lone losing once while scoring a club commemorate 101 goals and conceding equitable 30. That lapp season, AZ reached the final of the UEFA Cup, losing 5–4 on aggregate to Ipswich Town. The next year, in the european Cup, they lost in the second round 3–2 on aggregate to Liverpool. Georg Keßler was AZ ‘s director over most of these years ( 1978–82 ), while star players included : Kees Kist, the club ‘s highest ever goalscorer with 212 goals and the first gear always Dutchman to win the European Golden Boot in 1979 when he scored 34 goals in a season ; Jan Peters, who played 120 matches for AZ during this period scoring 30 goals from midfield ; and Hugo Hovenkamp, who played 239 matches in defensive structure for AZ from 1975 to 1983, deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as receiving 31 caps for the Netherlands national team from 1977 to 1983 and playing each match in UEFA Euro 1980 while an AZ actor. extra stars included John Metgod, who spent six years at AZ playing 195 matches as a defender, scoring 26 goals including a finish against Ipswich Town in the final of the UEFA Cup. Like Hovenkamp, Metgod was besides included in the Dutch team for Euro 1980. interim, Danish forward Kristen Nygaard spent ten years at AZ, scoring 104 goals in 363 matches between 1972 and 1982 .

1985–1993 : The interim years [edit ]

Co-owner Cees Molenaar died in 1979. AZ ‘s fortunes deteriorated after his brother, Klaas Molenaar, left the clubhouse in 1985. After respective mid-table finishes in previous seasons, AZ was relegated in 1988 from the Eredivisie, ending the season on 28 points from 34 matches and falling to the Eerste Divisie due to the superior goal difference of Roda JC. This delegating was meaning since it occurred fair seven years after the cabaret ‘s historic domestic double and marked the end of AZ ‘s first gear time period of success in Dutch football. Following this, AZ spent a lot of the following ten in the second grade, struggling to find a revert to the top trajectory .

1993–2009 : The Scheringa years [edit ]

The interest of businessman Dirk Scheringa in the mid-1990s marked the revival of the club as AZ returned to the Eredivisie, winning the 1997-98 Eerste Divisie deed. The club achieved back-to-back finishes around the middle positions in the league until ending up in third gear position in the 2004-05 Eredivisie season, AZ ‘s highest placement for 23 years. In the summer of 2006, the club moved to a new 17,000 capacity stadium, AZ Stadion. Despite playing powerfully for the majority of the 2006–07 season, AZ ‘s season ended in disappointment. First, entering the death matchday of the 2006–07 Eredivisie temper, AZ led PSV and Ajax on goal difference at the top of the league table, but ended up third gear after losing their last equal against 16th identify team Excelsior, AZ played with ten men for 80 minutes. additionally, AZ then lost the KNVB Cup final to Ajax 8–7 after a penalty shoot-out, while besides falling to Ajax over two play-off matches for engagement in the Champions League. After the season, key players like Tim de Cler, Danny Koevermans and Shota Arveladze left the team .
A remarkable run ended in the 2007–08 season : after AZ lost a group stage peer against Everton ( 3–2 ) in the UEFA Cup, the golf club ‘s unbeaten run of 32 base matches in european competitions – lasting from 1977 to 2007 – ended. AZ had a poor season, suffering elimination in the first round of the KNVB Cup and the group stage of the UEFA Cup, american samoa good as finishing the 2007–08 Eredivisie in a disappoint eleventh place. Towards the latter stages of the season, in March 2008, AZ director Louis van Gaal had initially tendered his resignation, but after protests the players and directors, he rescinded his resignation. The 2008–09 season had an unpromising start after two opening defeats against NAC Breda and ADO Den Haag. however, starting with a 1–0 victory over defending league champions PSV, AZ did not lose a match in its adjacent 28 matches, including a run of 11-straight matches where AZ did not concede an opposition goal. Three weeks before the goal of the season, AZ became Eredivisie champions, edging nearest title rivals Twente and Ajax comfortably. This was a historic accomplishment for the baseball club as this was the beginning title-winning season for 28 years, and it besides meant a fall to the UEFA Champions League. Being league champions, AZ qualified for the Champions League for only the moment prison term. It was drawn into a group alongside Arsenal FC, Standard Liège and Olympiacos but only took four points from six matches and finished bottom of their group .
For the 2009–10 season, Ronald Koeman succeeded Louis van Gaal, who had departed to manage Bayern Munich after leading AZ to the championship. Koeman was formally hired on 17 May 2009, but on 5 December, AZ announced he was no longer in agitate of the club after losing 7 of his first 16 matches. Former Rangers and Zenit Saint Petersburg director Dick Advocaat took over for the remainder of the season. Under Advocaat, AZ achieved solid results and procure european football for the next season. For the 2010–11 season, AZ appointed Gertjan Verbeek as its newfangled director. They finished the 2010–11 Eredivisie in fourth place, therefore securing Europa League football for the next season, while in the KNVB Cup, AZ reached the last eight, where they were beaten by rivals Ajax by a 1–0 scoreline. AZ besides finished third base in their Europa League group, thus failing to qualifying for the competition ‘s knockout round of golf. In the 2011–12 season, AZ finished fourth in the Eredivisie, though performed importantly better in cup competitions, reaching the semi-finals in the KNVB Cup ( losing to Heracles after extra time ) and the quarter-finals in the Europa League. In the latter, the cabaret ultimately lost to Valencia after having defeated Udinese, Anderlecht, Malmö FF, Austria Wien, Metalist Kharkiv, Aalesund and Baumit Jablonec to reach that stage. On 21 December 2011, during the quarter-finals of the 2011–12 KNVB Cup, a 19-year-old Ajax fan invaded the Amsterdam Arena pitch in the 36th infinitesimal with Ajax winning 1–0, attacking AZ goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado. The fan slipped and Alvarado kicked the fan doubly, prompting the referee to issue the goalkeeper a bolshevik wag. Following this, AZ coach Gertjan Verbeek ordered his players to leave the lurch for the dressing room in protest. The match was late played on 19 January 2012, with Alvarado ‘s loss card rescinded ; AZ won 3–2. The 2012–13 season started in the Europa League with a qualifying play-off round against Guus Hiddink ‘s Anzhi Makhachkala. AZ was hammered 6–0 on aggregate. Disappointingly, AZ finished tenth in the 2012–13 Eredivisie, although the club won the 2012–13 KNVB Cup after defeating PSV 2–1 in the final. As cup winners, AZ automatically qualified for the 2013–14 Europa League. In September 2013, just one day after decidedly beating PSV, at the time the league leaders, Verbeek was dismissed as inaugural team director by the club ascribable to “ a miss of chemistry ” between management and players. [ 5 ] He was replaced by Dick Advocaat for the remainder of the season until a permanent successor could be found. Advocaat took AZ to the semi-finals of the KNVB Cup, the quarter-finals of the Europa League and eighth in the league, ultimately losing to Groningen in the Europa League play-off final examination round ( their 58th meet of the season, a club record ) .

Since 2014 [edit ]

The 2014–15 season began with a newfangled director, early Heerenveen coach and Ajax bang-up Marco avant-garde Basten. however, after fair three matches into the season, Van Basten resigned as coach to become adjunct coach under Alex Pastoor, citing heavy stress as the main reason. [ 6 ] Pastoor was the interim coach during two matches under Van Basten ‘s absence and received the official title on 16 September, but compress negotiations failed and he left the club just two days late. A week belated, John van hideout Brom was appointed coach. Under Van hideout Brom, AZ cursorily rose up to the sub-top, finally finished the season in third put, surpassing Feyenoord on the final season ‘s matchday and qualifying for the 2015–16 Europa League. The 2015–16 Eredivisie started with AZ selling most of its first-team players from the former temper during the summer transfer period. As a response, AZ bought players from early Dutch clubs, notably Vincent Janssen from Almere City, Alireza Jahanbakhsh from NEC and Ben Rienstra from PEC Zwolle. In December, it was announced free agent Ron Vlaar signed a narrow until the end of the season after training with the club for a few weeks prior. [ 7 ] Vlaar cursorily became team captain and helped lift AZ from tenth place to a fourth-place finish in the league. Along this rise, new signing Vincent Janssen scored 27 goals for the club, earning him the Eredivisie peak goalscorer title. In the 2015–16 KNVB Cup, AZ made it to the semi-finals, losing 3–1 to Feyenoord. AZ won the beginning two qualification rounds to qualify for the 2015–16 Europa League group stage, but finished last in their group. At the originate of the 2016–17 Eredivisie, AZ sold last season ‘s performer Vincent Janssen to Tottenham Hotspur and long-time midfielder Markus Henriksen to Hull City. In the 2016–17 Europa League, AZ finished second in Group D, surviving the group phase for the third base time in five seasons. After an excellent 2019/20 season in which AZ beat league leaders Ajax home and away, aided by reproducible performances from youth academy talents such as Teun Koopmeiners, Myron Boadu, Calvin Stengs and Owen Wijndal, the season was forced to end early due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Joint on points with Ajax at the top of the table, AZ were given second base stead on goal dispute, and subsequently earned Qualification to the Champions League moment qualify orotund.

current team [edit ]

As of 31 August 2021[8]

note : Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality .

Out on loanword [edit ]

note : Flags indicate home team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality .

other players under contract [edit ]

note : Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality .

Jong AZ [edit ]

For the reservation police squad of AZ, see Jong AZ Participating in the Eerste Divisie, the reserve squad of AZ trains and plays their home games in Zaanstad .

stadium [edit ]

AFAS Stadion, AZ ‘s home venue in Alkmaar AZ play its home matches at the AFAS Stadion, located in the southerly part of the city of Alkmaar. The stadium, which is directly owned by the club, was opened in 2006 and replaced the old Alkmaarderhout venue as the DSB Stadion. The stadium presently has a capacity of 17,023. During its design stages, the name Victorie Stadion was frequently used, referring to the Dutch War of Independence, the phrase “In Alkmaar begint de victorie” (Victory begins in Alkmaar) in particular. Until now, this name has not been formally in use, the board alternatively opting for sponsorship deals because of fiscal motives. however, to this day, the mention maintains a adept contribution of support among the fans. To further increase gross, AZ ‘s display panel of directors decided to expand the capacity of the newfangled stadium to at least 30,000 somewhere in the future. The extension will be realised by constructing a irregular tier to three of the four stands. The independent stand with all technical areas, VIP and patronize and media facilities will remain in put. These plans, however, were put on have after the DSB bankruptcy and there are no current plans to increase the capacity. In October 2009, sponsor DSB Bank was declared bankrupt. The stadium list temporarily changed from DSB Stadion to AZ Stadion, as it was considered undesirable that the stadium was linked with a non-existent bank. In February 2010, a new independent sponsor was found in construction works service provider BUKO, based in Beverwijk. A year late, in the 2010–11 season, AFAS Software [ nl ] took over as official stadium patron. The current external name of the grind is the AFAS Stadion. On 10 August 2019, the roof of the stadium partially collapsed. No people were injured during the incident. [ 9 ] As the result AZ spent the stay of the year play home matches at the Cars Jeans Stadion in The Hague whilst the damaged roof was being removed, before returning to the stadium on 15 December 2019, beating Ajax 1–0 in their first match back. [ 10 ] As of 27 August 2020, a new ceiling is under structure .

Honours [edit ]

domestic [edit ]

AZ Eredivisie Results 1976 to 2009

International [edit ]

1 As Alkmaar ’54
2 As KFC in the As Alkmaar ’54As KFC in the Eerste Klasse C, precursor of the Tweede Klasse in the first class of professional football in the Netherlands .

AZ in Europe [edit ]

Below is a table with AZ ‘s external results in the past seasons .

UEFA stream rank [edit ]

As of 13th January 2021[12]

domestic results [edit ]

Below is a table with AZ ‘s domestic results since the insertion of professional football in 1956 .

celebrated ( former ) players [edit ]

For a list of former AZ players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:AZ Alkmaar players.

The players below had aged external cap ( south ) for their respective countries. Players whose identify is listed represented their countries while playing for AZ and its harbinger AZ’67 .

Coaches [edit ]

Notes [edit ]

^[3] Klaas en Cees Molenaar had been at this match and blamed Ajax ‘ late counterweight on a mistake by the referee ; they claimed they then swore to once become national champion with their team, with which they succeeded 47 years belated .