FC Twente wants to go to the Champions League

General manager Paul van der Kraan of FC Twente looks satisfied in the grandstand of De Kuip. “This is the maximum achievable today.” It is a minute after the 0-0 at Feyenoord, second in the Eredivisie. The deficit to the defending champion remains five points, meaning that a ticket for the main tournament of the Champions League is still within reach for FC Twente. “We have had a very difficult period,” he says. “We are now competing at the top again, sub-top. The club is back where we should be.”

It is his last match in office, Van der Kraan (70) will say goodbye next Wednesday. Although he remains associated with the club as an advisor, to help his successor Dominique Scholten get started. “It is all still not sufficiently structured, too fragile. We need to lay more foundations for the club. Dominique will do that.”

But FC Twente is back, firmly ensconced in the top three. After the financial mismanagement at the beginning of the last decade, the relegation in 2018, followed by promotion a year later. Van der Kraan joined in 2021 and experienced the period of sporting and financial reconstruction. Which led to a strong turnover of almost 40 million euros over last season (net profit 5 million). Although there is still a significant debt: 21 million in interest-bearing loans and 14 million in subordinated loans.

Higher salary budget

Van der Kraan, an experienced football manager, hopes that they will be able to maintain the current course “at least”. “We have to expand it further.” The salary budget (salary house) is approximately 9.5 million euros, which means FC Twente is still in the middle bracket. “That means some things don’t work.”

For example, the talented attacker Lequincio Zeefuik from FC Volendam will most likely choose AZ, while FC Twente was also interested. “They have more to spend. People around us estimate our salary budget to be higher than it actually is.” Technical director Arnold Bruggink was busy on Sunday bringing in striker Myron Boadu (ex-AZ) from AS Monaco. He must succeed Manfred Ugalde, who is leaving for Spartak Moscow.

Van der Kraan nods to the field. There is stability there, with coach Joseph Oosting, after three seasons under Ron Jans. “They handled it fantastically. Today also without Ugalde, which is great.” FC Twente is presenting itself well in De Kuip, after a painful defeat at NEC last weekend and a restless week that followed. Oosting was not happy with Ugalde’s departure. In addition, several players became ill, including intended basic players Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Sem Steijn.

In De Kuip, FC Twente sells itself short in the first half. First, occasional striker Daan Rots, normally a right winger, gets a great chance after he cleverly sprints away and deftly takes the shot. But he shoots wide. And Michel Vlap wastes an almost certain goal by running in front of the ball in a free and promising position: the goal he scores on a pass from Joshua Brenet is disallowed for offside. After the break, FC Twente comes under a lot of pressure, but manages to withstand it. With an important role for goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall, who stops a penalty from Santiago Gimenez.

New impetus

“We are a team with character and we have to rely on working together,” says Daan Rots (22). “With a battered team we were able to resist well.” He symbolizes the new impetus at FC Twente: he grew up in the Achterhoek, was already a fan of the club in his youth and joined the youth academy in 2012.

Rots experienced the relegation up close and could not imagine at the time that this could really happen to such a big club as FC Twente. He remembers sitting in the stands in 2019 and watching the club lose 5-2 at home to Go Ahead Eagles. “It wasn’t full either. Then I thought: this is not the club I want to see.”

In the youth academy he noticed the unrest and uncertainty. “When we came to the club, there were often rumors that the club could be closed down, because there were so many debts and problems,” he says in De Kuip on Sunday. “The club management was gone, cuts had to be made to the youth academy.”

After the rise in recent years, FC Twente is now third, a place that entitles them to the preliminary round of the Champions League this season. Rots: “I dream of playing in the Champions League, entering the field with that music. That’s what every little boy wants.”

It’s also possible to come second. “We continue to attack upwards.” They have to become even more ruthless, says Rots. “If we don’t play top, we still have the qualities to win that match, in whatever way.”

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