Football Season Guide

Excelsior will probably endure a tough campaign in the Eredivisie season 2016/2017. They managed to avoid having to participate in the relegation play-offs during the previous season, but it looks like it will be hard to repeat that success. A lot of players have decided to leave the club and the Rotterdam side has not been able yet to completely fill the empty space. Experienced players like Sander Fischer and Tom van Weert were ready for a new step in their career and decided to sign at Go Ahead Eagles and FC Groningen respectively. Two more experienced players, Rick Kruys and Daan Bovenberg, announced their retirement from professional football at the ages of 31 and 27 respectively. Wingers Brandley Kuwas and Daryl van Mieghem both made a transfer to Heracles Almelo. A few more players have chosen for a different environment at a new club, but those were not regular players. Excelsior managed to sign experienced midfielders Ryan Koolwijk and Anouar Hadouir, but one can not expect from them that they can compensate for all the experienced players that have left Excelsior. However, Ryan Koolwijk will be the captain of Excelsior in the upcoming season. Defender Jeffry Fortes came over from FC Dordrecht to Excelsior and talented defender Leeroy Owusu was added to the squad as well, on loan from Ajax. The Amsterdam side took over another talented defender, Danilho Doekhi, from Excelsior already before the end of the previous season. Alfons Groenendijk was the coach who managed to keep Excelsior in the Eredivisie last season, but he decided to quit his job. The battle to avoid relegation had demanded a lot of him and he did not want to go through the same process for another season. The new Excelsior coach will be Mitchell van der Gaag, who will make his coaching debut in the Eredivisie in the upcoming season. He finished his career as a player in Portugal and started his career as a coach there as well. During the season 2015/2016 he was the coach of FC Eindhoven in the Jupiler League.