Waalwijk

Marcel Brands left Waalwijk for a career that ran through Ajax, Real Madrid and Manchester United as a sporting director, in the side that took RKC to the Eerstedivisie title in 1988. Peter Bosz, later manager of Ajax, Feyenoord and the Netherlands, held down a place in the same team.

The club did not exist under that name at first. It formed on 26 August 1940 from a merger of three Catholic sides in the town — HEC, WVB and Waalwijkse Voetbalvereniging Hercules — and took the initials RKC, standing for Rooms Katholieke Combinatie. The city's name was added from the 1995/96 season.

Two Eerstedivisie titles mark the record: 1987/88 and 2010/11, each earning direct promotion to the Eredivisie. The cup has never come — no KNVB Beker win, no final appearance, though the team has reached the quarter-final stage repeatedly, as recently as 2025. European football has meant four entries in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

Rick Hoogendorp scored more than anyone else to wear the shirt, 126 goals in 250 matches, though it was Ad van de Wiel who opened the club's account in professional football, against Willem II in 1984, and finished top scorer three times through the 1980s. Giovanni van Bronckhorst spent a loan season here in 1992/93, on loan from Feyenoord. Khalid Boulahrouz came up through the youth ranks before Bayern and Borussia Dortmund.

Willem II supplies the derby that matters most, played since 1984 and known as the Midden-Brabants Derbi.