The matchday experience at the Euroborg in 2015 was intrinsically linked to your mobile phone, but not in the way we use smartphones today. Before the era of seamless club apps and free push-notification polls, the ultimate judgment of a player’s performance cost exactly 60 eurocents. The “Essent Man of the Match” was a staple of the FC Groningen matchday ritual, requiring fans to literally pay to voice their opinion via text message: “SMS GRO (space) BACKNUMBER to 4040.”
During this particular period in the 2014/2015 season, the battle for the top spot was fierce. In a recent loss against AZ, creative midfielder Tjaronn Chery secured the title of Man of the Match, claiming 22% of the fan vote. He narrowly edged out the tireless engine Maikel Kieftenbeld (14%), while goalkeeper Sergio Padt and the beloved Swedish talent Simon Tibbling shared third place with 7%. Despite Chery’s individual brilliance in that match, the overall season leaderboard was still dominated by the Brazilian defensive rock, Eric Botteghin, who had accumulated 16 points to Chery’s 14.
The mechanics of this voting system reflect a specific era of football commercialization. The winner was announced just before the final whistle, ensuring they could be presented with flowers directly on the pitch immediately after the game. For the fans, the 60-cent premium SMS was a small price to pay for a chance to win a VIP prize at the Business Desk. It was a tangible, albeit clunky, way for the Green-White Army to interact with their heroes.
A Look into the Future
By 2026, the concept of paying 60 cents to send a premium SMS to a 4-digit shortcode feels like ancient history, entirely replaced by free, instant voting within the official FC Groningen mobile app. Tjaronn Chery, the creative force of that 2015 squad, would go on to have a globe-trotting career, playing in England, China, Israel, and Belgium, before making a romantic return to the Eredivisie. Eric Botteghin, the man who led the overall standings that year, cemented his legacy as one of the best defenders in the club’s modern history before moving to Feyenoord. Meanwhile, the main sponsor, Essent, has heavily shifted its public branding away from traditional energy towards green transition solutions, mirroring the broader socioeconomic shifts in the Noord-Nederland region.