Patro Eisden

In 2005 the club had to change its name for the third time in seven years, dropping K. Maasland Maasmechelen for the current K. Patro Eisden Maasmechelen after licensing problems threatened its place in Belgian football altogether. The rebrand back toward the old Eisden identity was less a marketing choice than a survival one, and it stuck.

The identity itself goes back to a chaplain, Maurice Vanschoenbeeck, who founded V.V. Patro Eisden in 1938. The club only entered the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1942, taking registration number 3434, and that filing is what the federation counts as the founding date rather than the parish side Vanschoenbeeck put together four years earlier. The V.V. prefix disappeared in 1957, and in 1992 the club was granted royal status.

Patro's one taste of the Belgian top flight came in 1960, and it lasted a single season: 16th place and back down. Twice it went closer without getting there, finishing second in the second division in 1959-60 and again in 1976-77. The nickname "Klein Anderlecht" - Little Anderlecht - dates from around that era, a nod to the purple shirts shared with the Brussels club rather than to any real rivalry in stature.

The move to the current Patrostadion in Maasmechelen came in 2002, a 4,011-capacity ground the club has occupied through all the subsequent name changes. Success at senior level has mostly come in the lower divisions: a fourth-division title in 1981-82 and another in 2010-11. The 2022-23 season produced the club's most significant modern honour, winning the National Division 1, Belgium's third tier, and with it a route back toward the football Patro last played in 1960.