VVV

Foundation and first decades (1903–1952)

VVV originated from the association football club De Gouden Leeuw, which was founded by a group of friends in Venlo at the end of the nineteenth century. A few more name changes would occur, and the team was also known as Valuas for some time. Eventually, it was decided on 7 February 1903 to change the name to Venlose Voetbal Vereniging (VVV), the current name of the club. VVV wrote itself into the history books as one of the oldest clubs in Dutch professional football. In 1909, the clubs VITOS and THOR merged and became part of VVV. Quick followed in 1910.

During the first years of its existence, VVV could not enter the highest league of Dutch football. This was due to the fact that before the 1911–12 season, there was no first-tier Eerste Klasse in the southern Netherlands, but only Eastern and a Western Eerste Klasse. From the 1912–13 season, the South also competed in its own Eerste Klasse. VVV has been part of this since its introduction into Dutch football, with varying degrees of success. After the 1921–22 season, the club suffered relegation to the second-tier Tweede Klasse. Afterwards, the team played for some time in the Tweede Klasse, in which they won the championship during several seasons. They, however, failed to reach promotion to the Eerste Klasse again afterwards. After the end of World War II, the number of Eerste Klasse teams was expanded, which also included VVV. From 1948 to 1952, the club achieved fourth-place finishes in the Eerste Klasse.

Recent years (2006–present)

VVV returned to the Eredivisie, the highest league in the Netherlands, by defeating RKC Waalwijk (3–0) in the promotion/relegation play-offs in the 2006–07 season. After one season in the Eredivisie, VVV-Venlo were relegated back to the Eerste Divisie. After a single season, VVV-Venlo won the 2008–09 Eerste Divisie title and returned to the Eredivisie.

In the 2009–10 season, the team booked its best league result since 1988 after finishing 12th in the Eredivisie. Another remarkable event was the transfer of star player Keisuke Honda to CSKA Moscow. They also signed toddler Baerke van der Meij on a symbolic ten-year contract, after a video featuring him scoring a hat trick into a toy box became popular. Honda was replaced by Gonzalo and the club signed Japanese player Maya Yoshida. The departure of Honda turned out to be a key point in the club's season. In the second half of the season, the team was not able to win matches and barely escaped from relegation.

At the end of the season, key players Ruben Schaken and Adil Auassar both signed with Feyenoord on a free transfer. Gonzalo returned to his employer Groningen, while Sandro Calabro signed with Swiss side St. Gallen. The club contracted Ruud Boymans and the Nigerian Ahmed Musa to strengthen the squad for the 2010–11 season. They avoided relegation, but it was a harsh season in which Jan van Dijk was fired and former international Patrick Paauwe terminated his contract after losing the competition from his competitors.

Belgian manager Glen De Boeck was signed for the next season, but failed to improve the results. As a result of that, he resigned in December 2011. Ton Lokhoff was recruited as the new manager and succeeded in avoiding relegation by winning the post-season play-offs. However, in the 2012–13 season, the club was relegated after losing the promotion/relegation play-offs against Go Ahead Eagles. The club finished fifth in its first Eerste Divisie season since its promotion in 2009. But again, the club bounced back and returned to the Eredivisie in 2017, after clinching promotion by defeating RKC Waalwijk.

On 24 October 2020, VVV-Venlo suffered the biggest defeat in Eredivisie history by losing to Ajax at home 13–0.