Royal Antwerp Football Club, often referred to as Royal Antwerp or simply Antwerp, is a Belgian football club based in the city of Antwerp. Founded around 1880 as ''Antwerp Cricket Club'' by English students residing in Antwerp, 15 years before the creation of the

Royal Belgian Football Association The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA; ; ; ) is the governing body of football in Belgium. It was a founding member of FIFA in 1904 and UEFA in 1954 and was based in Brussels, not far from the King Baudouin Stadium. Since October 2021, ...

, Antwerp is regarded as the oldest club in Belgium. At first there was no organised football played by its members, until 1887 when the football division was founded with an own board, named ''Antwerp Football Club''. Being the oldest active club at the time, it was the first club to register to the Association in 1895. Consequently, when matriculation numbers were introduced in 1926, the club received matriculate number one.

History

Over the course of the club's history, Royal Antwerp have won four Belgian league titles as well as three

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

s. In 1900, most of the players left the club for the new neighbouring club of K. Beerschot V.A.C., and this was the start of a long rivalry between both clubs. The club is the most recent Belgian team to have reached a UEFA competition final, the 1993 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, where they lost 3–1 against

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. Royal Antwerp had a long-term partnership with the English club

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, taking their young players on loan so that their development can be aided with first team football, and young players who require European work-permits can benefit from Belgium's more relaxed laws. An example is Dong Fangzhuo, who was unable to play for United immediately due to work permit problems and was loaned to allow him to gain first team experience. Despite being one of Belgium's best-supported clubs, Antwerp have been under-achievers for several years. They have not won a league title since 1957, and have spent several seasons in the second division. They were promoted to the top flight in 2000, only to be relegated in short order in 2004. They returned to the first division after 13 years in 2017. In August 2020, the Great Old won their first major trophy in nearly 30 years when they upset league champions

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

in the final of the

. On 21 March 2022 Marc Overmars was announced as Royal Antwerp's Director of Football, just over a month after having resigned from the same position at Ajax due to admitting to sending inappropriate messages and pictures of his genitals to female colleagues. His arrival caused four club sponsors to withdraw within a week.

Stadium

Royal Antwerp have played their home matches at the

Bosuilstadion The Bosuilstadion is an association football stadium in the city of Antwerp, Belgium. The stadium was opened in 1923 and has been the home of Royal Antwerp ever since. It has a capacity of 16,144,

since 1923.

Rivalries

Royal Antwerp share a fierce rivalry with city neighbours Beerschot A.C. (now

K Beerschot VA Koninklijke Beerschot Voetbalclub Antwerpen, or simply Beerschot, is a Belgian professional football club located in Antwerp, that competes in the second-tier First Division B after relegating from the top tier in the 2021–22 season. In 2 ...

). Although in the 2000s-2010s the two clubs have met sparingly, when they do, there is usually fan violence. Royal Antwerp are often seen as a culture club with a diverse, cross-class support across the city while Beerschot have either heavily working class or upper class support, locally based in South Antwerp. Beerschot supporters often refer to RAFC fans as "''joden''" or "''Jews''" due to the fact that to get to Antwerp's stadium they must pass through the Jewish district, while Great Old supporters refer to Beerschot followers as "the rats". RAFC also have developed a long-standing rivalry with

. They also have a local rivalry with KV Mechelen, although there is mutual respect due to a shared hatred of Beerschot.

Meuse/Scheldt Cup

The best football players of Antwerp and Rotterdam contested a yearly match between 1909 and 1959 for the Meuse- and Scheldt Cup (Maas- en Schelde Beker). It was agreed to play the game at Antwerp's stadium De Bosuil in Belgium and at Sparta Rotterdam's Het Kasteel stadium in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The cup was provided in 1909 by P. Havenith from Antwerp and Kees van Hasselt from Rotterdam.

Honours

National

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

*Champions: 1928–29, 1930–31, 1943–44, 1956–57

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Asso ...

*Champions: 1999–2000, 2016–17

*Winners: 1954–55, 1991–92, 2019–20 *Runners-up: 1974–75

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champio ...

*Runners-up: 1992

International

Challenge International du Nord The Challenge international du Nord (Northern International Challenge) was an annual football tournament featuring clubs from Northern France and Belgium as they could not play in the French Championship. Later teams from Switzerland, Netherland ...

*Winners: 1902, 1906

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised ...

: Runners-up:

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

Players

Current squad

Other players under contract

Out on loan

Technical staff

Former players

* Willy Vincent

Manchester United Players loan partnership

''This is a list of former players acquired on-loan via Manchester United's partnership with Royal Antwerp from 1998 to 2013.'' *

Jamie Wood Jamie Wood (born 21 September 1978) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was born in Salford, England and started his career as a youth player at Manchester United. Wood has represented the Cayman Islands internatio ...

* Dong Fangzhuo *

Fraizer Campbell Fraizer Lee Campbell (born 13 September 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker, most recently for Huddersfield Town. He has also played for Manchester United, Royal Antwerp, Hull City, Tottenham Hotspur, Sunderland, ...

* Luke Chadwick *

John Cofie John Erzuah Cofie (born 21 January 1993) is a Ghanaian-born English retired footballer who played as a forward. He began his career with Burnley and moved to Manchester United for a fee of £1m at the age of 14, but failed to make the break into ...

* Jimmy Davis * Sylvan Ebanks-Blake *

Adam Eckersley Adam James Eckersley (born 7 September 1985) is an English former footballer who played primarily as a full-back. He is the older brother of fellow professional footballer Richard Eckersley. He started his career with Manchester United in 20 ...

* David Fox * Luke Giverin * Colin Heath * Tom Heaton *

Kirk Hilton Kirk Hilton (born 2 April 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League for Blackpool. Club career Hilton began his career in the Manchester United youth programme. He was released from United and played ...

Eddie Johnson Edward, Eddie or Ed Johnson may refer to: Politicians * Edward Johnson (founder of Woburn, MA) (1598–1672), colonial military officer and writer * Edward Johnson (mayor) (1767–1829), mayor of Baltimore *Edward A. Johnson (1860–1944), first A ...

* Ritchie Jones *

Michael Lea Michael Robert Lea (born 4 November 1987) is an English footballer. His regular position is at left-back, but he can also play at centre-back when required. Career Early career Born in Salford, Greater Manchester, Lea was brought up in Leigh ...

* Lee Martin *

Paul Rachubka Paul Stephen Rachubka (; born 21 May 1981) is an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He now works as an accountant in Manchester. Born in San Luis Obispo, California, to an English mother and an American father, Rachubka ...

Ryan Shawcross Ryan James Shawcross (born 4 October 1987) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is currently an assistant coach with MLS Next Pro club Inter Miami II. Shawcross began his career with Manchester United a ...

* Danny Simpson *

Alan Tate Alan Tate (born 2 September 1982) is an English professional football coach and retired footballer who is an assistant head coach at Nottingham Forest. A former defender, Tate spent the majority of his playing career at Swansea City. After ...

Ronnie Wallwork Ronald Wallwork (born 10 September 1977) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. An England under-20 international, he began his career at Manchester United, where he made his professional debut in 1997. He ne ...

Neil Wood Neil Anthony Wood (born 4 January 1983) is an English football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of club Salford City. As a player, Wood played as a midfielder. He began his playing career in the academy of Manchester Unit ...

Arthur Gómez Arthur Gómez (born 12 February 1984) is a Gambian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Club career Born in Banjul, Gómez began his playing career at a non league team called London United F.C which is based in Serekunda L ...

* Danny Higginbotham * Darron Gibson *

John O'Shea John Francis O'Shea (; born 30 April 1981) is an Irish professional football coach and former player. He was known for his versatility in playing several positions on either side of the pitch or the centre. Born in Waterford, O'Shea joined ...

Gyliano van Velzen Gyliano Mauritzio Marvin van Velzen (born 14 April 1994) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a winger for Cypriot club Peyia 2014. Born in Amsterdam, he began his career with Ajax before moving to English club Manchester United as ...

Craig Cathcart Craig George Cathcart (born 6 February 1989) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for EFL Championship club Watford and the Northern Ireland national team. He has also captained his country's under-21 side. A ...

Jonny Evans Jonathan Grant Evans (born 3 January 1988) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Leicester City and the Northern Ireland national team. Evans started his career at Manchester United and progressed th ...

Phil Bardsley Phillip Anthony Bardsley (born 28 June 1985) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for Stockport County. He has played international football for the Scotland national team. Bardsley began his career with Manchester United whe ...

* David Gray * Souleymane Mamam

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Antwerp FC Association football clubs established in 1880 Football clubs in Belgium Football clubs in Antwerp 1880 establishments in Belgium Belgian First Division A clubs