VVV-Venlo
VVV-Venlo is a football club from the Dutch-German border town Venlo, Netherlands, playing in the Eredivisie. The club plays its home games in the Covebo Stadion - De Koel stadium, which is named after one of the club's sponsors Covebo Uitzendgroep. VVV's home colours are yellow and black, the former being the dominant shirt colour.
History
VVV returned to the Eredivisie, the highest league in the Netherlands, by defeating RKC Waalwijk in the promotion/relegation play-offs in the 2006–07 season. After one season in the Eredivisie, VVV-Venlo were relegated back to the Eerste Divisie. After a single season, VVV-Venlo won the 2008–09 Eerste Divisie title and returned to the Eredivisie.In the 2009–10 season, the team booked its best league result since 1988 after finishing 12th in the Eredivisie. Another remarkable event was the transfer of star player Keisuke Honda to CSKA Moscow. They also signed toddler Baerke van der Meij on a symbolic ten-year contract, after a video featuring him scoring a hat trick into a toy box became popular. Honda was replaced by Gonzalo and the club signed Japanese player Maya Yoshida. The departure of Honda turned out to be a key point in the club's season. In the second half of the season, the team was not able to win matches and barely escaped from relegation.
At the end of the season, key players Ruben Schaken and Adil Auassar both signed with Feyenoord on a free transfer. Gonzalo returned to his employer Groningen, while Sandro Calabro signed with Swiss side St. Gallen. The club contracted Ruud Boymans and the Nigerian Ahmed Musa to strengthen the squad for the 2010-11 season. They avoided relegation, but it was a harsh season in which Jan van Dijk was fired and former international Patrick Paauwe terminated his contract after losing the competition from his competitors.
Belgian manager Glen De Boeck was signed for the next season, but failed to improve the results. As a result of that, he resigned in December 2011. Ton Lokhoff was recruited as the new manager and succeeded in avoiding relegation by winning the post-season play-offs. However, in the 2012–13 season, the club was relegated after losing the promotion/relegation play-offs against Go Ahead Eagles. The club finished fifth in its first Eerste Divisie season since its promotion in 2009. But again, the club bounced back and returned to the Eredivisie in 2017, after clinching promotion by defeating RKC Waalwijk.
Japanese players
Since Keisuke Honda transferred from Nagoya Grampus in 2008, a slew of Japanese players has played at VVV-Venlo, including Maya Yoshida, Robert Cullen and Yuki Otsu. Sef Vergoossen, a legendary manager of the club, and Japanese agent Tetsuro Kiyooka were a bridge between the Japanese players and the club.Stadium
VVV-Venlo currently play at De Koel in Venlo. The stadium holds 8,000 people and was built in 1972. It is named after its main sponsor, hence its current name, Covebo Stadion De Koel.Results
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PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/2019
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1990
Colors =
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id:bl2 value:rgb
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bar:Position width:15 color:white align:center
from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1991 shift: text:3
from:01/01/1991 till:01/01/1992 shift: text:18
from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/1993 shift: text:1
from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 shift: text:17
from:01/01/1994 till:01/01/1995 shift: text:12
from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1996 shift: text:5
from:01/01/1996 till:01/01/1997 shift: text:4
from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/1998 shift: text:11
from:01/01/1998 till:01/01/1999 shift: text:11
from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2000 shift: text:15
from:01/01/2000 till:01/01/2001 shift: text:18
from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2002 shift: text:13
from:01/01/2002 till:01/01/2003 shift: text:13
from:01/01/2003 till:01/01/2004 shift: text:7
from:01/01/2004 till:01/01/2005 shift: text:3
from:01/01/2005 till:01/01/2006 shift: text:2
from:01/01/2006 till:01/01/2007 shift: text:2
from:01/01/2007 till:01/01/2008 shift: text:17
from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2009 shift: text:1
from:01/01/2009 till:01/01/2010 shift: text:12
from:01/01/2010 till:01/01/2011 shift: text:17
from:01/01/2011 till:01/01/2012 shift: text:16
from:01/01/2012 till:01/01/2013 shift: text:17
from:01/01/2013 till:01/01/2014 shift: text:5
from:01/01/2014 till:01/01/2015 shift: text:6
from:01/01/2015 till:01/01/2016 shift: text:2
from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2017 shift: text:1
from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2018 shift: text:15
from:01/01/2018 till:01/01/2019 shift: text:12
from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1991 color:bl1 shift: text:
from:01/01/1991 till:01/01/1992 color:bl2 shift: text:
from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/1993 color:bl1 shift: text:
from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 color:bl2 shift: text:
from:01/01/1994 till:01/01/2007 color:bl1 shift: text: "Eerste Divisie"
from:01/01/2007 till:01/01/2008 color:bl2 shift: text:
from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2009 color:bl1 shift: text:
from:01/01/2009 till:01/01/2013 color:bl2 shift: text: "Eredivisie"
from:01/01/2013 till:01/01/2017 color:bl1 shift: text: "Eerste Divisie"
from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2018 color:bl2 shift: text: "Eredivisie"
from:01/01/2018 till:01/01/2019 color:bl2 shift: text: