Almere City FC

Last year Almere City turned the tide and earned promotion to the Eredivisie for the first time in their history, beating the competition from much more accredited teams, such as Willem II, NAC Breda and VVV Venlo. After a first part of the season in line with expectations in which they navigated between 5th and 9th place, in the last two months they have accelerated considerably finishing in 3rd position. In the promotion playoffs they eliminated FC Eindhoven, VVV Venlo and finally Eredivisie's Emmen. The strength of the team, coached by Alex Pastoor (also confirmed for this season) was certainly the defense, the second best in the league with just 41 goals conceded in 38 rounds, while the attack, the tenth in the Eerste Divisie, only produced 58 goals. Central forward Jeredy Hilterman, with 16 goals, has been the team’s top scorer. In the transition to top flight, also due to economic necessity, the club decided not to make many changes, a policy that is often successful for a newly promoted team. They kept all their key players except midfielder Jorrit Smeets, however well replaced by Peer Koopmeiners who arrived from AZ Alkmaar on loan. Experienced French centre-forward Thomas Robinet and full-back Sherel Floranus have also arrived in Almere.