Go Ahead Eagles
The Go Ahead Eagles are a Dutch professional football club from the city of Deventer in the province of Overijssel. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, having achieved promotion from the second tier Eerste Divisie in the 2020–21 season. The club's home stadium since 1920 is De Adelaarshorst. The club have won the national championship on four occasions: in 1917, 1922, 1930 and 1933. They also won the KNVB Cup in 2025 for the first time.
Early successes
The club was founded in 1902 as Be Quick by the Hollander brothers. The name was changed to Go Ahead at the request of the Dutch Football Association in 1905, to avoid confusion with another team. Go Ahead started in the second-tier Tweede Klasse. In 1911, the club reached promotion to the Eastern Eerste Klasse. In 1916, Go Ahead became champions of the Eastern Eerste Klasse for the first time, after which they faced off for the national championship in a competition with the other regional champions. In this championship playoffs for the national championship, however, the southern champions from Willem II proved too strong. A year later, however, Go Ahead took their first league title, a feat repeated in 1922, 1930 and 1933.
Professionalism and Europe
The introduction of professionalism in 1954 was initially unsuccessful for Go Ahead. In 1956, the club finished second to last in the Tweede Divisie. In 1959, promotion to the Eerste Divisie was secured. On 7 October 1962, Go Ahead recorded their biggest win in club history. In Deventer the final score was 11–1 against Roda JC. Promotion to the top-tier Eredivisie followed in 1963. In the twenty-four years that followed, the club continuously played at the highest level. Especially in the second half of the sixties, Go Ahead did well in the Eredivisie. For example, from 1966 to 1969, the club finished in the top five four times in a row, with the 1967–68 season as high point when Go Ahead finished third behind Ajax and Feyenoord.
Recent seasons
After almost two decades in the Eerste Divisie, Go Ahead won promotion to the 2013–14 Eredivisie at the end of the 2012–13 season, winning the promotion play-offs. The club remained in the top division for the 2014–15 season, finishing 13th.[citation needed] Go Ahead Eagles would compete in Europe in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League due to the Netherlands' first place in UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking. National Fair Play winner Twente withdrew due to financial difficulties, making the place for Go Ahead Eagles. However, they also suffered relegation after losing 2–0 on aggregate to De Graafschap in the May 2015 promotion/relegation play-offs. In July 2015, they were beaten 2–5 on aggregate by Hungarian side Ferencváros in the first Europa League qualifying round with the home leg played in Emmen due to the Adelaarshorst being renovated, and the away leg without spectators because the Hungarians were serving a ban by UEFA.[citation needed]
Below is a table with Go Ahead Eagles' domestic results since the introduction of professional football in 1956.
Go Ahead Eagles' biggest rivals are PEC Zwolle. Both clubs are located close to the river IJssel, hence the name IJssel-derby for their encounters. Other teams who share a rivalry with Go Ahead Eagles include FC Twente and De Graafschap.[citation needed] Go Ahead Eagles fans maintain a friendly relationship with English team Luton Town.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
National team players
The following players were called up to represent their national teams in international football and received caps during their tenure with Go Ahead Eagles: [check quotation syntax]
National team players by Confederation
Member associations are listed in order of most to least amount of current and former Go Ahead Eagles players represented Internationally
The following is a list of Go Ahead Eagles players who have competed in international tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship, Africa Cup of Nations, CONCACAF Gold Cup, and the Caribbean Cup. To this date no Go Ahead Eagles players have participated in the AFC Asian Cup, or the OFC Nations Cup while playing for Go Ahead Eagles.
