Feyenoord fans once sailed to Lisbon by the shipload for a semi-final
In 1963 hundreds of thousands of people lined Rotterdam's waterways to wave off two ships carrying thousands of Feyenoord supporters to a European Cup semi-final against Benfica. The team lost, yet that trip opened the club's golden age, and seven years later Feyenoord became the first Dutch side to lift a major European trophy.
The club began on 19 July 1908 in a pub called De Vereeniging, under the name Wilhelmina, and cycled through several names and kits before settling in 1912 on SC Feijenoord, after its district, along with the red-and-white shirts and black shorts it still wears. The modern spelling Feyenoord arrived in the 1970s. Since 1937 home has been Stadion Feijenoord, known as De Kuip, the Tub, now the second largest stadium in the Netherlands. During the Second World War, with De Kuip occupied by the Nazis, the team borrowed Sparta Rotterdam's ground.
Titles came early, with a first national championship in 1924 and a first Dutch Cup in 1930. When professional football began in 1954, Feyenoord joined the first Eredivisie season and has never been relegated. In 1956 Henk Schouten scored nine goals in an 11–4 win over the Volewijckers. A tense European Cup tie against Vasas in 1962 went to a replay in Antwerp, where 30,000 fans arrived by bus and Rinus Bennaars scored the only goal, earning the nickname the Hero of Deurne and sparking a lasting friendship between the two clubs' supporters.
The peak came in the 1960s and 1970s, led by Coen Moulijn, Willem van Hanegem and Ove Kindvall. In the 1970 European Cup final at the San Siro against Celtic, Kindvall scored three minutes before the end of extra time. Feyenoord then added the Intercontinental Cup, becoming the first Dutch club to win both.
Across its history the club has collected 16 league titles, 14 national cups, two UEFA Cups and one European Cup. Its 2002 UEFA Cup win over Borussia Dortmund came in its own stadium, and no other Dutch club has won a European trophy this century. A league title in 2017 ended an 18-year wait. Rivalry with Ajax, a meeting of the country's two biggest cities, is known simply as De Klassieker.
Source: Feyenoord
