100: FC TWENTE

history in european cups:

1960 was a little bit of a memorable year in dutch football. Ajax Amsterdam just became the first side to win two titles in the newly created dutch league, the eredivisie, their 10th national title. but it is an important reference, since exactly 40 years later, something has happened for the first time since then: two dutch champions in a row without any of the big three getting the glory! last year az alkmaar under louis van gaal, who has now enjoyed a pretty succesful run at bayern munich. and this year, ex-england manager steve mclaren gave twente enschede their first ever national title!

enschede is located at the border to germany, and the team obviously have some european history before this great feat.

twente appeared in europe in the great seventies, when holland really showed up on the european and world footbal horizon. ajax started it in 69, when they reached the european final, and the next four years only had dutch title holders. twente first appeared in europe in the 70/71 season, in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, long known as UEFA Cup and now, Europa League. Twente eliminated traditional greek side AEK Athens with two victories, and eliminated a lesser known turkish team in the second round. in the Round of 16, the tradicional team of Dinamo Zagreb also were surprised by this new dutch side, and Twente is in the quarter-finals in their first ever european season. there, they experienced an incredible european night: after a 0x2 loss against italian powerhouse Juventus, twente were able to beat the italians 2x0 at home, but the extra 30 minutes saw the italians score twice, and Twente eliminated.

but now they had the european virus, and were back on the stage two years later. in the uefa cup (already with the new name), twente eliminated tradicional soviet side dinamo tbilisi and a danish team in the first two rounds, once again reaching the round of 16. twente once again won their home match, as always so far in their young european history, and eliminated spanish island team las palmas. and this time, the quarter-final was not the end: twente eliminated the tradicional yugoslavian team ofk belgrade with another home win and reached the semifinals, but borussia mönchengladbach won both matches their, with a 5x1 aggregate scoreline. the german club from the city only 160 km away had stopped their dreams, but twente would not stop dreaming of even greater glory.

twente reached the round of 16 once again, one year later, but lost both matches to english team ipswich town. desappointed, they vowed to do better in their fourth european season, a year later. but the first round had a tough draw: ipswich town! in england, twente managed a good 2x2 tie, and another tie at home, 1x1, saw them barely through to the second round. there, they eliminated a team from neighbouring belgium and travelled to prague, to play czech team dukla. with a 1x3 loss in a baggage, hope seemed little for Twente, but a historic 5x0 win lead them to there 3rd quarter-final in the last five years. in mostar, Twente lost 0x1 to the local Velez team, but once again reverted the disadvantage at home: 3x1. now, semifinals, second time in their club history. and, for the second time, juventus were the opponents. one they'd lost to in their first european season, but this time, two convincing victories had the small dutch city celebrating their first european final. the around 150,000 inhabitants were euphoric, and the final would see their third known opponent of the campaign: Borussia Mönchengladbach, the germans who had given them their biggest defeat so far. the first leg of the final was played in düsseldorf, may 7 of 1975, 35 years ago. the 0x0 scoreline seemed a perfect result for the dutch team. at home, a simple victory would give the club and the city a historic trophy to cherish forever.

it was not to be. 1x5 was the disappointing scoreline on May 21. Twente were runners-up in the UEFA Cup. and this is, to date, their best european season. at that time, Twente was the 15th best club in europe, and hoped for more europe glory and, maybe, a national title.

that title came in 1977, when Twente won the KNVP Cup for the first time. in that important campaign, they had eliminated Feyenoord, and it qualified them for europe for the first time since the drama against the lads from mönchengladbach.

the draw wasn't friendly in the Cup Winners Cup season 77/78: Glasgow Rangers had a rich european tradition and were favorites to move on. they hadn't been very successful in recent years, so they were hungry. but they were left hungry, since Twente won 3x0 after managing a tie in scotland. eliminating a norwegian team proved as easy as it seemed, once again, quarter-finals were reached. there, the danish side Vejle had no chance, and lucky Enschede was in their third semifinal in their still recent european history. but there, RSC Anderlecht proved to be to big. at the time, the belgians were one of the five best teams in europe, and they beat the dutch side in both games.

this was the end of the greatest era in Twente's club history, were they came as far as to be europe's number 14 club. in 1998, Twente dreamed of some glory in the now seemingly much more difficult european scenario, after the bosman law. back in the UEFA Cup, Twente suffered a home loss to norwegian side Lilleström, 0x1. luckily, they won 2x1 in norway. against Aarhus, from denmark, another suffering occured. 1x1 in denmark, 0x0 at home - once again passing barely. no glory that year, as two defeats to french club AJ Auxerre proved, in the third round.

august 13, two years ago. time to dream again, but only dream. champions league qualifying, third round - but the draw had no mercy, arsenal fc was the opponent. 0x6 was the final scoreline after 180 minutes. at least Twente survived the qualifying for the UEFA Cup group phase, after almost being eliminated by french side Stade Rennais. Twente then went on to win their home matches against spanish club Racing Santander and german club Schalke 04. but in the intermediate round, even a 1x0 win in marseille wasn't enough, against Olympique. but the second game, at home, was a 0x1 loss at home, and then a heart-breaking loss in the penalty shoot-out.

this season, werder bremen eliminated the dutch side in the same round of the new europa league, but next year, Twente will be in the UEFA Champions League for the first time.

a new chapter in their european history will be written, and their status as one of the best 100 european clubs in history will be confirmed.

notable players:

ever heard of ronald de boer? turned pro at Ajax, and won the Champions League for them in 95, and the Uefa Cup, too. went to FC Barcelona when louis van gaal, his coach at Ajax, was invited to coach the spanish greats. at 21, ronald went to Twente, for two seasons, and really improved there. he went on to play 67 matches for the netherland national team. including the 94 and 98 world cups.

elijero elia, you might not have heard of him yet. he's in the dutch squad for this year's world cup and has had a pretty decent season for Hamburger SV. in the two seasons before that, the Ajax junior had played himself into the spotlight at Twente.

martin jol is more famous for his managing career (former Tottenham and Hamburg, currently Ajax), but after a not very successful stay at Bayern Munich as a player in 1979, he had three seasons at Twente.

youri mulder's youth career was at ajax, too, just as the other players mentioned above. he signed his first contract as a pro at Twente, were he scored 27 goals in 72 matches. he then moved to Schalke 04, were he won the UEFA Cup in 1998, against Internazionale.

blaise nkufo will defend switzerland this world cup. he has been Twente's top scorer for years now, and he hopes to score one or the other goal in south africa.

helmut rahn has had his world cup glory. at the age of 73, two days before his birthday, he died. rahn, the "boss", scored germany's winning goal in the 1954 world cup final against the seemingly unbeatable hungarians, a feat that became famous as the miracle of bern. six years later, he played for the dutch team Twente until the german bundesliga came to life and he went back to germany.

andy van der meyde still plays. the still is strange, since he is just 30 years old. but his career seemed to really get a boost seven years ago, when he moved from Ajax to Internazionale. he'd spent a season as a loan for Twente when he was 19. andy still barely plays for PSV.

jan vennegoor of hesselink also had a great career in his cards. he scored 63 goals for Twente from age 17 to 22.