Royal Antwerp F.C.

Royal Antwerp Football Club is a Belgian football club from Antwerp. Founded in 1880 as the Antwerp Cricket Club by English students, the club is regarded as the oldest club in Belgium. The football division was founded in 1887 and named the Antwerp Football Club.

Royal Antwerp

Full name	Royal Antwerp Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Great Old, The Reds
Founded	1880 (1880-{{{month}}}-{{{day}}})
Ground	Bosuilstadion Antwerp, Belgium (capacity: 16,144)
Owner	House of Orange-Nassau
Chairman	Piet van Boldwijn
Manager	Mark van Bommel
League	Belgian First Division A
2021–22	Belgian First Division A, 4th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

History

Royal Antwerp has won four Belgian league titles as well as three Belgian Cups. In 1900 most of the players left the club to K. Beerschot V.A.C.. This was the start of a long rivalry between the two clubs.

The club is the last Belgian team to reach a UEFA competition final. In the 1993 European Cup Winners' Cup Final they lost 3–1 against Parma at Wembley Stadium.

Royal Antwerp had a partnership with the English club Manchester United An example is Dong Fangzhuo. He was unable to play for United immediately due to work permit problems and was loaned to Antwerp.

Although the club is on Belgium's best-supported they reached no trophies. They have not won a league title since 1957 and also spent several seasons in the second division. They were promoted to the top flight in 2000 and relegated in 2004. They returned to the first division after 13 years in 2017. In August 2020 they won the first title since 1957. They won the Belgian Cup versus Club Brugge .

Stadium

Royal Antwerp plays their home matches at the Bosuilstadion since 1923.

National

Belgian First Division

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

Belgian Second Division

• Champions: 1999–2000, 2016–17

Belgian Cup

• Winners: 1954–55, 1991–92, 2019–20, 2022/23
• Runners-up: 1974–75

Belgian Super Cup

• Runners-up: 1992

International

Challenge International du Nord

• Winners: 1902, 1906

European Cup Winners' Cup

Runners-up: 1992–93

Current squad

As of 8 August 2022.

No. Position Player 1 GK Jean Butez 2 DF Ritchie De Laet 3 DF Björn Engels 4 MF Radja Nainggolan 6 MF Birger Verstraete 7 FW Viktor Fischer 8 MF Alhassan Yusuf 10 FW Michel-Ange Balikwisha 11 FW Arbnor Muja 16 MF Pieter Gerkens 18 FW Vincent Janssen 19 FW Koji Miyoshi 21 DF Sam Vines 22 DF Gastón Ávila 23 DF Toby Alderweireld 24 MF Jurgen Ekkelenkamp

No. Position Player 25 MF Alexis De Sart 26 GK Ortwin De Wolf 30 DF Abdoulaye Seck 32 MF Christoper Scott 33 DF Zeno Van Den Bosch 34 DF Jelle Bataille 38 MF Faris Haroun (captain) 48 MF Arthur Vermeeren 50 DF Laurit Krasniqi 51 DF William Pacho 55 FW Anthony Valencia 61 DF Dinis Almeida 71 GK Davor Matijaš 80 MF Pierre Dwomoh 87 GK Davino Verhulst 99 FW Michael Frey

Coaching staff

Position	Name
Manager	Mark van Bommel
Assistant Manager	Andries Ulderink
Assistant Manager	John Stegeman
Assistant Coach	Jürgen Dirkx
Assistant Coach	Egid Kiesouw
Goalkeeping Coach	Brian Vandenbussche
Fitness Coach	Peter Catteeuw
Match Analyst	Jerry Vanacker

Manchester United Players loan partnership

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

• Jamie Wood
• Dong Fangzhuo
• Fraizer Campbell
• Luke Chadwick
• John Cofie
• Jimmy Davis
• Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
• Adam Eckersley
• David Fox
• Luke Giverin
• Colin Heath
• Tom Heaton
• Kirk Hilton
• Eddie Johnson
• Ritchie Jones
• Michael Lea
• Lee Martin
• Paul Rachubka
• Ryan Shawcross
• Danny Simpson
• Alan Tate
• Ronnie Wallwork
• Neil Wood
• Arthur Gómez
• Danny Higginbotham
• Darron Gibson
• John O'Shea
• Gyliano van Velzen
• Craig Cathcart
• Jonny Evans
• Phil Bardsley
• David Gray
• Souleymane Mamam

Royal Antwerp F.C. Media

• 

  Tribune 1, Bosuilstadion, 2019

Other websites

• Official website