VVV Venlo 2019/2020 Away Shirt

VVV-VENLO - AWAY SHIRT 2019/2020

VVV-Venlo, founded on 7 February 1903, are a professional football club from the south-eastern Dutch city of Venlo, a stone's throw from the German border. Known as De Trots van het Zuiden ("The Pride of the South"), they play their home matches at De Koel - Venlo Limburgish for "pit" - a compact ground built into a literal hollow in 1972, famous for the long staircase players descend from the dressing rooms to the pitch. In 1977 a crowd of 24,500 squeezed in for a match against Ajax, a figure today's 8,000-capacity all-seater can scarcely imagine.

The 2019/2020 season, in which this striking away shirt was worn, was VVV's 115th in existence and their 12th consecutive campaign in the top flight. It also turned out to be one of the strangest in living memory. After a turbulent autumn under Robert Maaskant - sacked in November - Jay Driessen took caretaker charge before Hans de Koning was installed in mid-December. With VVV mired in the lower half of the Eredivisie, the season was suspended on 12 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and formally abandoned on 24 April, with the standings on 8 March taken as the final ranking and, crucially for VVV, no relegation enforced.

The KNVB Cup brought little relief - an early exit at the hands of amateur side RKSV Groene Ster, who held VVV to a 2-2 draw in October 2019 before winning on penalties.

Johnatan Opoku finished as the club's top scorer with six goals across all competitions, in what was very much a survival season rather than a particularly memorable one.

Follow the club on X: @VVVVenlo