Football Season Guide

Last season MVV Maastricht celebrated their 25-year marriage to the Eerste Divisie, after spending most of the previous life in the Eredivisie. After a disastrous first period, which saw them winning only once between August and October, they managed to straighten the ship until mid-February, before facing another fall until the end of the campaign. Thus, they finished on the 15th spot, 15 points away from the promotion playoffs. The attack certainly was their weakest point as they scored 52 goals, doing only better than other 5 sides. Coach Edwin Hermans, who took the reins of the team in July 2024, was confirmed at the helm, even though midway through the past season the club faced a slight change of ownership with ambitious Dutch-Japanese Deshima Football Consultancy acquiring half of the shares. For sure, such ambition did not affect the summer transfer campaign, which was not too eventful thus far. An area where they changed a lot was the goalie department which was completely renewed with starting Matthys and back-ups Lambrix and Op De Beeck all departing, being replaced by Westerweld, on loan from AZ Alkmaar, who has experience but hardly played last season following injury, and Belgian Poitoux and Kempeneers. The defence lost starting right-back Zeegers but they should have plenty of options to replace him in young Librici or new signings Kuipers and Tran. The midfield remains basically untouched as back-up Penders was let go but will not be missed. 17-year-old Mansala-Mpudi, arriving from Standard youth system, could turn out to be an interesting addition in due time. In the attack, they lost all the left wingers, with starting Esajas returning to Fortuna Sittard, his parent club, and back-up Bouifrahi sold to Club Brugge youth system. In order to replace them, Maastricht picked up Verheijen, who made his name in this category at Venlo, while 25-year-old Asante had distinguished himself in the KNVB Beker with Tweede Divisie Rijnsburgse Boys. The good news is they retained both strikers, Mmaee and Braken, 22 goals and 6 assists altogether, and attacking midfielder Smeets, capable of 11 assists overall.