We may again! The 65th Eredivisie season starts this weekend. How sudden the end of the 2019/20 season was, that’s how long it took before the 2020/21 season could really begin. Together with TOTO we look forward to the coming year, with special attention to the first goal scorer, the title match and the return of Arjen Robben.

If the ball finally rolls again next Saturday, it will be the first time in 188 days that football is played in the Eredivisie again. It ends the longest break in the history of the competition. Denzel Dumfries was the last top scorer at the highest level in the Netherlands on March 8 during FC Groningen – PSV. But who will score the first goal of the new season? With the relocation of FC Utrecht – AZ, sc Heerenveen and Willem II start the Eredivisie season 2020/21. The Frisians won only one league match this calendar year (two draws, five defeats) and had to handle nineteen hits in the Eredivisie in 2020, the highest number of all teams. In that respect, the chances of a goal from William II are great. In 2019/20 of all Eredivisie teams, the Tilburg team scored relatively regularly in the first half (62.2% – 23 of 37), while only AZ (58.8%) scored more goals against Heerenveen than Heerenveen (58, 5%, 24 out of 41). If Willem II manages to hold that line, it goes without saying that Tilburg will score the first goal of this season.

Who will make the opening goal of this Eredivisie season? Look at the chance for hits from sc Heerenveen and Willem II.

While AZ, Feyenoord and PSV managed to keep the selection together quite well, Ajax said goodbye to two strongholds: Donny van de Beek and Hakim Ziyech both swapped the Eredivisie for the Premier League. Of course, they will be missed, but it looks like Ajax will succeed in signing competent replacements. With Antony (ten – four goals, six assists) and Mohammed Kudus (twelve – eleven goals, one assist), the Amsterdam team has the youngest player with at least ten goals or assists in the last season of the Brazilian and Danish leagues. . AZ, who managed to keep a clean sheet in no less than 17 of 25 games last season, were able to strengthen with defender Timo Letschert. At Feyenoord, Bryan Linssen (fourteen goals, five assistants) and Mark Diemers (seven goals, four assistants) greeted two players who were directly involved in more than ten Eredivisie hits last season. In Eindhoven, Philipp Max was the third most productive defender in the biggest five competitions of the past season (eight goals, six assistants). The ingredients for a blood-curdling title fight seem to be there, but who ultimately wins the longest straw?

Who can call themselves Eredivision champions at the end of this season? Look at the chance here.

The most special asset of this season is to play in Groningen: after a year of sabbatical, Arjen Robben is again a professional football player. Returning to the Eredivisie can be done in all sorts of ways. Dirk Kuyt’s return was one of the category for the boys’ books, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar returned as if he had never left and happily continued to score for Ajax (38 hits since his return), but on the other hand, for example , Mark’s less successful entry. van Bommel, John Heitinga and Patrick Kluivert. Time will tell in which category Robben’s returns should be placed. The first game of the season is immediately a good measuring point, Robben meets his old love PSV with FC Groningen.

Coincidentally, the attacker also made his last minutes in the Eredivisie on this poster, although he then defended the colors of the Eindhoven team. Should he take action, Robben will do so 16 years and 155 days after his previous Eredivisie match (PSV – FC Groningen, 11 April 2004), a new record he then set with Robin van Persie (13 years, 267 days) will take over. The last player to end an Eredivisie season at the age of 37 will reach Robben in January 2021, and Johan Cruijff has scored at least ten times in that season. Cruyff scored eleven hits in the 1983/84 season. Could Robben have equaled him?

Will Robben start his season with a goal against PSV? Look at the chance here for an attacker’s goal.

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