Fortuna Sittard

The club experienced mixed fortunes throughout its history although they were a regular fixture in the Eredivisie in the 1990s, with many talented players such as Kevin Hofland, Mark van Bommel and Fernando Ricksen emerging from its youth system. These players later joined PSV Eindhoven and Rangers thereafter featured for the Netherlands national team. The team's management also had an eye for talent, as they snapped up Wilfred Bouma and Patrick Paauwe from the youth setup of PSV. Both players developed well under manager Bert van Marwijk, before breaking into the Dutch national side and moving towards bigger clubs.

'Fortuna 54' was a relatively successful club which once won the KNVB Cup in the 1956–57 season where they finished the Eredivisie season second place behind champions Ajax whereas the 'Sittardia' battled against relegation for many seasons. Another KNVB Cup triumph was also celebrated by 'Fortuna 54' in 1964 before the merging of the two clubs in 1968 due to financial difficulties.

At the end of the 1999–2000 season, successful manager Bert van Marwijk left to join Feyenoord and the team seemed to collapse. Due to poor management, the team signed a number of over-paid and under-performing "stars". Fortuna relegated to the First Division in the 2001–02 season, where things were getting from bad to worse very quickly.[1] Financial irregularities had been discovered and the team has been facing bankruptcy for the past four seasons. A little highlight came in the winter of 2003, when two of the club's fans won the Dutch lottery and donated all of the prize money to the club.

Things started to look up for Fortuna, when they were able to clear most of their debts by selling of the new stadium, the Wagner & Partners stadium. Unfortunately, the team hasn't been performing on the pitch and finished dead-last in the Dutch First Division for three consecutive seasons.

On 19 May 2009, the KNVB announced it would withdraw the license to play of Fortuna Sittard for the 2010–11 season. After going to civil court, this decision was revoked and the club did not lose its license.[2] Even though financial troubles kept plaguing the club, recent years have seen a slow but steady return to financial health, with sportive successes following suit. In the 2011–2012 season they missed qualification for the playoffs for promotion to the Eredivisie by a hair's breadth, conceding an equalizer in the dying seconds of the season in the home match against the Go Ahead Eagles, seeing them take the final playoff spot instead. In 2012–13 and 2013–14 they were successful in qualifying, having a first chance at returning to the Eredivisie since their relegation in 2002, but they lost both first round matches against De Graafschap.

In 2018, after 16 years in the Eerste Divisie, Fortuna won promotion to the Eredivisie again after beating Jong PSV 1–0 to stay clear from NEC and finishing runner-up to champions Jong Ajax, who are not allowed to promote.[3]

The 2018–19 season started unfortunate for the Limburgers: despite an almost stolen point against PSV Eindhoven, Fortuna found themselves back bottom of the league after four matches. A 2-3 win at NAC Breda however put them higher up in the rankings. In October and November Fortuna continued to gain points and eventually finding themselves back at the ninth place of the Eredivisie after 13 matches.[4]

The 2019–20 season ended with Fortuna in 16th place. But with the season being declared void, they will participate in Eredivisie in 2020–21.[5]

• KNVB Cup
  • Winner: 1957, 1964
  • Runners-up: 1984, 1999
• Eerste Divisie
  • Winner: 1959, 1964, 1966, 1995
• Promoted to Eredivisie
  • Promotion: 1982, 2018

Below is a table with Fortuna Sittard's domestic results since the introduction of professional football in 1956.

As of 20 February 2020

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Martin Angha 3 DF Wessel Dammers (captain) 4 DF Branislav Niňaj 5 DF Grégoire Amiot 6 MF Jorrit Smeets 7 FW Rasmus Karjalainen 8 MF Álex Carbonell (on loan from Valencia) 9 FW Bassala Sambou 10 MF Mark Diemers 11 FW Djibril Dianessy 12 DF Clint Essers 14 MF Tesfaldet Tekie 15 DF Felix Passlack (on loan from Borussia Dortmund) 17 MF Carlos Faya (on loan from Academia Puerto Cabello) 20 MF Amadou Ciss

No. Position Player 22 MF Adnan Ugur 24 MF Nassim El Ablak 25 MF Dimitrios Ioannidis 26 MF Bo Breukers 27 GK Rowen Koot 28 GK Ažbe Jug 29 DF Patrik Raitanen 34 MF Leandro Fernandes (on loan from Juventus) 35 DF George Cox (on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion) 44 DF Lazaros Rota 52 FW Nikolai Frederiksen (on loan from Juventus) 70 FW Jacky Donkor 77 GK Alexei Koșelev 99 FW Vitalie Damașcan (on loan from Torino)

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player FW Lisandro Semedo (at OFI until 30 June 2020) MF Luc Tinnemans (at EVV Echt until 30 June 2020) MF Lazar Kojić (at Radnik Surdulica until 30 June 2021)

No. Position Player GK Job van de Walle (at RKSV Groene Ster until 30 June 2020) FW André Vidigal (at APOEL FC until 31 May 2020) FW Áron Dobos (at ETO FC Győr until 30 June 2020)

• Dutch football league teams

• Official website (in Dutch)
• Fansite Fortuna Supporters Collectief