Fortuna Sittard

Fortuna Sittard (Fortuna Zitterd ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was established through a merger of former clubs Fortuna 54 and Sittardia, which merged as the Fortuna Sittardia Combinatie on 1 July 1968.

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

Fortuna 54 won the KNVB Cup in the 1956–57 season, and finished the Eredivisie season in second place behind champions Ajax. Sittardia were less successful and battled against relegation for many seasons. Fortuna 54 won the KNVB Cup again in 1964 before the merging of the two clubs in 1968 due to financial difficulties.

At the end of the 1999–2000 season, manager Bert van Marwijk left to join Feyenoord and the team was relegated to the First Division in the 2001–02 season.

Financial difficulties (2002–16)
Financial irregularities were discovered and the team faced bankruptcy over several seasons. In the winter of 2003, two of the club's fans won the Dutch lottery and donated all of the prize money to the club. The club cleared most of their debts by selling off their new stadium, the Wagner & Partners stadium.

On 19 May 2009, the KNVB announced it would withdraw the club's license to play for the 2010–11 season. After going to civil court, this decision was revoked. Despite ongoing financial difficulties, the club gradually began to recover financially in the following years, leading to sporting success. In the 2011–12 season, Fortuna Sittard narrowly missed out on qualifying for the playoffs for promotion to Eredivisie, conceding an equaliser in the final seconds of the season at their home match against the Go Ahead Eagles, resulting in the Eagles taking the final playoff spot instead. Although they qualified for the playoffs in the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons, offering them their first chance to return to Eredivisie since their relegation in 2002, they were unsuccessful in both first-round matches against De Graafschap.

Takeover and Eredivisie (2016–present)
The club again faced financial troubles in 2016, leading to its takeover by a Turkish investor named Işıtan Gün, who had previously served as the chief operating officer of Galatasaray. The 2016–17 season was a tough start for the club, but they managed to avoid relegation after changing coaches and recruiting new players, including some from Galatasaray.

In December 2016, Sunday Oliseh was appointed as the new coach of Fortuna Sittard. During his time as coach, he set two new records for the club, with eight consecutive home victories and the biggest away victory in the club's history against Telstar with a score of 6–0. In January 2018, the team won a periodetitel after a 2–1 victory over Jong Ajax. However, on 14 February 2018, Oliseh was suspended due to "repeated and culpable actions towards multiple individuals within the organisation over an extended period." A statement on the club's website announced his release.

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.

Fortuna Sittard finished in 16th place during the 2019–20 season. However, due to the season being declared void in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they remained in the Eredivisie for the 2020–21 season.

Honours

 * KNVB Cup
 * Winners: 1956–57, 1963–64
 * Runners-up: 1983–84, 1998–99
 * Eerste Divisie
 * Winners: 1958–59, 1963–64, 1965–66, 1994–95
 * Promoted: 1981–82, 2017–18

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

National team players
''The following players were called up to represent their national teams in international football and received caps during their tenure with Fortuna Sittard :


 * Cape Verde
 * 🇨🇻 Deroy Duarte (2021–2024)
 * 🇨🇻 Lisandro Semedo (2017–2022)
 * DR Congo
 * Samuel Moutoussamy (2020–2021)
 * Finland
 * 🇫🇮 Rasmus Karjalainen (2019–2021)
 * Greece
 * 🇬🇷 Lazaros Rota (2020–2021)
 * Luxembourg
 * 🇱🇺 Antoine Kohn (1959–1963; 1964–1965)
 * Moldova
 * 🇲🇩 Vitalie Damașcan (2019–2020)
 * 🇲🇩 Alexei Koșelev (2018–2021)


 * Netherlands
 * 🇳🇱 Henk Angenent (1954–1962)
 * 🇳🇱 Bram Appel (1948–1949; 1955–1960)
 * 🇳🇱 Bart Carlier (1955–1958; 1964–1965)
 * 🇳🇱 Willy Dullens (1963–1969)
 * 🇳🇱 Gerard Gruisen (1951–1969)
 * 🇳🇱 Cor van der Hart (1954–1966)
 * 🇳🇱 Wim Koevermans (1980–1988)
 * 🇳🇱 Frans de Munck (1954–1957)
 * 🇳🇱 Jan Notermans (1955–1965)
 * 🇳🇱 Willy Quaedackers (1961–1966)
 * 🇳🇱 Wilbert Suvrijn (1981–1986)
 * 🇳🇱 Faas Wilkes (1959–1962)
 * New Zealand
 * 🇳🇿 Fred de Jong (1990–1993)


 * North Macedonia
 * Stefan Ashkovski (2016–2018)
 * Northern Ireland
 * Phil Gray (1996–1997)
 * Slovakia
 * 🇸🇰 Branislav Niňaj (2018–2021)
 * Suriname
 * 🇸🇷 Justin Lonwijk (2024)
 * 🇸🇷 Gavin Vlijter (2015–2019)
 * Sweden
 * 🇸🇪 Tesfaldet Tekie (2019–2022)
 * Togo
 * 🇹🇬 Sadik Fofana (2023–2024)
 * Turkey
 * 🇹🇷 Burak Yılmaz (2022–2023)


 * Players in bold actively play for Fortuna Sittard and for their respective national teams. Years in brackets indicate careerspan with Fortuna Sittard.

National team players by Confederation
Member associations are listed in order of most to least amount of current and former Fortuna Sittard players represented Internationally

Players in international tournaments
The following is a list of Fortuna Sittard players who have competed in international tournaments, including the Africa Cup of Nations. To this date no Fortuna Sittard players have participated in the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship, CONCACAF Gold Cup, AFC Asian Cup, Copa América or the OFC Nations Cup while playing for Fortuna Sittard.

Coaches

 * As Fortuna '54
 * 1956–57: 🇦🇹 Friedrich Donenfeld (vice champion, cup winner)
 * 1957–58: 🇳🇱 Bram Appel
 * 1958–59: 🇳🇱 Harry Verhardt
 * 1959–61: 🇦🇹 Friedrich Donenfeld
 * 1961–63: 🇳🇱 Jung Schlangen
 * 1963–65: 🇳🇱 Wim Latten (cup winner 1964)
 * 1965–66: 🇩🇪 Max Schirschin
 * 1966–67: 🇩🇪 Karl-Heinz Marotzke
 * 1967–68: 🇳🇱 Bram Appel


 * As Sittardia
 * 🇳🇱 Frans Debruyn
 * Vladimir Beara (1966–1968)
 * 🇳🇱 Frans Debruyn (1968)


 * As Fortuna Sittard
 * 🇳🇱 Frans Debruyn (1968–69)
 * 🇳🇱 Henk Reuvers (1969–70)
 * 🇳🇱 Evert Teunissen (1970–72)
 * 🇳🇱 Cor Brom (1972–76)
 * 🇳🇱 Cor van der Hart (1976–77)
 * 🇳🇱 Joop Castenmiller (1977–80)
 * 🇳🇱 Frans Körver (1980–84)
 * 🇳🇱 Bert Jacobs (1984–87)
 * 🇳🇱 Hans van Doorneveld (1987–89)
 * 🇳🇱 Han Berger (1989–91)
 * 🇩🇪 Georg Keßler (1991–92)
 * 🇳🇱 Chris Dekker (1992–94)
 * 🇳🇱 Pim Verbeek (1994–97)
 * 🇳🇱 Bert van Marwijk (1997–00)
 * 🇳🇱 Henk Duut (2000–01)
 * 🇳🇱 Frans Thijssen (2000–01)
 * 🇳🇱 Hans Verèl (2001)
 * 🇳🇱 Hans de Koning (2001–04)
 * 🇳🇱 Chris Dekker (2004–06)
 * 🇳🇱 Frans Körver (2006–07)


 * 🇳🇱 Henk Wisman (2007)
 * 🇳🇱 Roger Reijners (2007–10)
 * 🇳🇱 Wim Dusseldorp (2010–11)
 * 🇳🇱 Tini Ruys (2011–12)
 * 🇳🇱 Willy Boessen (2012–14)
 * 🇳🇱 Peter van Vossen (2014–15)
 * 🇳🇱 Ben van Dael (2015–16)
 * 🇳🇬 Sunday Oliseh (2017–18)
 * 🇵🇹 Claudio Braga (a.i.) (2018)
 * 🇳🇱 René Eijer (2018–19)
 * 🇳🇱 Sjors Ultee (2019–20)
 * 🇳🇱 Kevin Hofland (2020)
 * 🇳🇱 Sjors Ultee (2020–2022)
 * 🇪🇸 Julio Velazquez (2022–2023)
 * 🇳🇱 Danny Buijs (2023–Present)

Women's football
On January 25, 2022, Fortuna announced they were beginning a women's football department. The club started playing in the Dutch women's Eredivisie in season 2022/23.