ROHDA Raalte

Etiënne Reijnen took his first touches on the pitches at Sportpark Tijenraan before a career that carried him through PEC Zwolle and AZ Alkmaar, where he lifted the KNVB Cup in 2013 — one of several goalkeepers and defenders Rohda Raalte sent into the professional game without ever chasing that level itself. Nick Marsman went on to keep goal for FC Twente and Feyenoord; Jeffrey de Visscher moved from Twente to Aberdeen. The club that shaped them grew out of a Catholic sports association founded in Raalte on 20 May 1929, its name an acronym of the Dutch for "straight at goal," and it has spent the near-century since holding its ground in the amateur ranks rather than climbing out of them for long.

The high point came in 1979, when Rohda beat DOVO to the General Amateur Championship, two years after taking the District Cup East. Promotions followed in 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003, each undone by relegation before long — a pattern of climbing and slipping back that defined the club more than any single season did. That changed recently. Rohda lost the 2023–24 promotion final to SV Huizen, then won a secondary tournament anyway and went up to the Derde Divisie; a year later they finished top of Derde Divisie A and moved into the Tweede Divisie for 2025–26, the highest level the club has reached in this run.

Matches against Excelsior '31 of Rijssen carry the weight of the Overijssel derby, and games with Achilles '29 have taken on their own edge at the top of the amateur pyramid. Reijnen remains the name Raalte points to first — proof that a small Overijssel club with red and yellow on its badge can still produce a cup winner.