There is a specific, fleeting kind of joy in football that only occurs in the second week of August. It is the joy of looking at the league table after Matchday 1 and seeing your club sitting proudly at the absolute summit. Page 9 of the August 11, 2013 matchday programme captures exactly this moment for FC Groningen fans.
Following a spectacular 1-4 away demolition of NEC Nijmegen, the Pride of the North occupied the number one spot in the Eredivisie standings, looking down on traditional giants like Ajax and PSV. The statistics page in this booklet serves as a beautiful time capsule of that early-season optimism. The “Topscorers FC Groningen” section is particularly telling, listing four different players with one goal each: the newly arrived playmaker Tjaronn Chery, the hard-working Slovenian Andraz Kirm, the Uruguayan striker David Texeira, and the sensational local academy product Richairo Zivkovic.
This distribution of goals highlighted a dynamic, multifaceted attack. The inclusion of Richairo Zivkovic is especially nostalgic; at just 16 years old, he was the talk of the town, a homegrown prodigy whose pace and finishing ability had the Euroborg dreaming of a spectacular season. Meanwhile, the left page grounds us back in the local reality, featuring a grid of steadfast regional businesses like Bas Optiek and Habibi Kinderdagverblijf, reminding us that while the club was soaring at the top of the national league, its roots remained firmly planted in the local community.
A Look into the Future
The illusion of being league champions in August naturally faded as the grueling reality of the Eredivisie season set in, and FC Groningen eventually settled into a respectable 7th place finish that year. However, the attacking core highlighted on this page had wildly different trajectories. Richairo Zivkovic‘s explosive performances earned him a high-profile transfer to Ajax the following summer. Tjaronn Chery would go on to become the undisputed creative engine of the team, eventually leading them to KNVB Cup glory in 2015 before embarking on a lucrative global career. This single page remains a snapshot of a squad brimming with raw, unfulfilled potential that was just beginning to click.