Football Season Guide

Fortuna Sittard come from a very complicated season as they ended in 15th place, just one point above the playout zone. They were involved in the relegation struggle from the beginning to the end and won the permanence thanks to the 6 points collected in the last two rounds. The problems were mainly in defense having conceded 67 goals, the second worst defense in the League. Despite this, coach Sjors Ultee was confirmed on the bench. Their KNVB Beker adventure ended already in December, defeated 2-0 by PSV Eindhoven in the second round. Over the course of the summer the team underwent many changes. Almost 15 players left Sittard, some of them very important, above all Zian Flemming who, with his 12 goals (almost all in the season finale), was the main factor for survival. Other first string players said goodbye like centre-back Martin Angha, captain Ben Rienstra, winger Lisandro Semedo and midfielder Tesfaldet Tekie. As for the arrivals, they were much less numerous. Fortuna mainly fished in foreign championships by taking goalkeeper Ivor Pandur and defender Rodrigo Guth from Italy, left-back Rémy Vita from Germany and midfielder Dogan Erdogan from Turkey. However, the most important purchase is that of the former Turkish international forward Burak Yilmaz, a level player, but who now turned 37.