Willem II

Willem II open the new Eredivisie season straight off the back of promotion, having won the Eerste Divisie in 2023/24 and returned through the play-offs — the fourth time in the club's history they have taken the second-tier title, a habit few Dutch sides can claim. The club has made a routine of the drop and the climb back: relegated in 2011 for the first time in 24 years, they were back up within a season.

Founded on 12 August 1896 as Tilburgia, the club took its present name in January 1898, after Willem II, the king who died in Tilburg in 1849. Red, white and blue in vertical stripes — the colours of the national flag — have marked the shirt ever since, and the nickname Tricolores follows from the same source.

The championships sit some way back now: three Dutch titles, the last of them in 1954/55, and two domestic cups, the second won 3-0 against ADO in 1963. The nearer high point was 1999, when a second-place finish in the Eredivisie sent Willem II into the Champions League. The Koning Willem II Stadion, opened on 31 May 1995 and holding just over 15,000, has been home for all of it since.

The academy's clearest claim runs through Frenkie de Jong, who came up through the club before his move to Barcelona. Jaap Stam, later a fixture at the back for Manchester United, started here too. Neither had a long spell at Willem II by the time the big clubs came calling, but both are remembered as the ones who got away — and got somewhere.