The UEFA European Championships 2024 are underway. The men’s football teams of 24 countries are battling it out for the trophy on various pitches in Germany.

I personally wished there was a trophy for most imaginative football fans. The ‘Dutch Legion’, the nickname for the Dutch Football fans, would have a good chance of winning it. Belying the reputation of the Dutch people for being level-headed, down-to-earth, and with an ‘act-normal-that’s-crazy-enough’ mentality, the Dutch Legion go full ‘Orange Fever’ (a term that seems to have disappeared) by dressing up in crazy costumes in bright orange, with even crazier accessories, usually some sort of head gear, all in orange, with sometimes a smidgen of red, white and blue. They come in their tens of thousands, especially now that the tournament is held so close to the Netherlands. as anyone who watched them marched through Hamburg before their first match against Poland on 16 June will be able to testify. It was their 50th march, so a special event in any case. The English language online newspaper NL Times posted some videos. 

Dutch football fans demonstrating their devotion to the colour orange (Photograph from Pinterest)

Why the colour orange? The Dutch flag is red, white and blue, so what’s the ‘Oranje’ doing there? The orange refers to the Dutch Royal family, whose name is Van Oranje-Nassau.

The Nassaus are an old aristocratic family from Germany. The foundations of the family go back to 1403, but it was in 1544 that Rene van Chalon, ruler over the princedom of Orange in France and son of Early Henry III and Claudia of Chalon dies and leaves all his possessions to his nephew William of Orange (1533-1584). William became the founding father of the Oranje-Nassau dynasty.  I wonder what William would have made of the Dutch Legion.

William of Orange, from Levinus Ferdinand de Beaufort, Het Leven van Willem de I., Prins van Oranje ... (Leiden, 1732) 1199.f.6-8. 

I wrote a blog post about the phenomenon of Dutch fandom four years ago. Meanwhile Ronald Koeman’s Orange Team have reached the next stage, so the Dutch Legion will be out in full force for the next week at least.  You can’t miss them. Meanwhile, as you wait for their next match, you can browse through some suggested reading on Dutch (and Belgian) football and footballers from our collections below.

Marja Kingma, Curator Germanic Collections

Further reading:

[Please note that because of the recent cyberattack on the British Library, not all titles are currently available in our reading rooms. The BL is working hard to restore access, and you can find information and updates here.]

Paul Baaijens, Matchday! Op zoek naar het Engels voetbal in Londen. 3rd ed. (Amsterdam, 2017) YF.2018.a.14341

Marco van Basten, Basta: the incredible autobiography of Marco van Basten. (London, 2020) ELD.DS.574874

Dennis Bergkamp, Stillness and Speed: My Story. (London, 2013) YK.2014.a.13494

Sytze de Boer, Johan Cruijff uitspraken: een biografie in citaten. (Amsterdam, 2011). YF.2012.a.34510

Erik Brouwer [et al.], Literatuur met een doel: schrijvers over voetbal,  Schrijversprentenboek; 45 (Amsterdam, 2000 (?)) . YA.2000.a.14353

Hugo Borst, O, Louis. 4th edition (Netherlands, 2014) YF.2014.a.19051

Yoeri van den Busken, De Beer van de Meer: biografie Piet Schrijvers (Deventer, 2019) YF.2021.a.7384

Eddy Brimson, God Save the Team: Fighting for Survival at Euro 2000. (London, 2001) YK.2002.a.23192.

Hugo Camps, Bert van Marwijk: het levensverhaal, de werkwijze. (Gouda, 2012) YF.2016.b.160

Sean Crosson, Sport, Film and National Culture. (Abingdon, 2020) ELD.DS.513899

Johan Cruyff / Jaap de Groot, Voetbal. 2nd ed. (Amsterdam, 2012) YF.2014.a.18466.

Johan Cruyff, My Turn: the Autobiography. (London, 2016) ELD.DS.97944

Johan Cruyff, 'Nooit iets doen op de normen van een ander': de binnenwereld van Johan Cruijff: 14 waarheden in zijn eigen woorden. (Amsterdam, 2022) YF.2022.a.15091

Nico Dijkshoorn, Nat gras. (Utrecht, 2017) YF.2019.a.1113.

Diable rouge: a British Guide to Belgian Football. (Great Britain, 1994 - ..) RH.9.X.1058.

Michel van Egmond, / Martin Donker (ed), Het pak van Louis van Gaal: voetbalkronieken. (Gouda, 2013) YF.2014.a.19140

Michel van Egmond, Kieft. 13th ed (Gouda, 2014) YF.2015.a.3050

David Endt, Route 32. Een seizoen Ajax. (Amsterdam, 2013) YF.2014.a.15336

Ronald Giphart, Het eeuwige gezeik. (Amsterdam, 2017) YF.2019.a.970

Ruud Gullit, Ruud Gullit : My Autobiography. (London, 1999) YK.2004.a.11512.

Harry Harris, Ruud Gullit: Portrait of a Genius. (London, 2016) ELD.DS.68612.

Gerard den Haan, Gerard den Haan: schoppen & slaan: de slechtste voetballer van Nederland. (Amsterdam, 2017) YF.2018.a.18529

Bert Hiddema, Cruijff, de gouden jaren. 2nd ed. (Amsterdam, 2019) YF.2019.a.15682

Koen Jansen, 90 minuten oorlog : de explosieve mix van politiek en het WK voetbal. (Amsterdam,2022) YF.2023.a.76

Dirk Karsdorp, The Complete Belgium FC 1904-2020. (South Humberside, 2020) YKL.2022.a.30666.

Auke Kok, Johan Cruijff: de biografie. (Amsterdam, 2019) YF.2021.a.12466.

Simon Kuper, Dure spitsen scoren niet en andere raadsels van het voetbal verklaard. 5th ed. (Amsterdam, 2012) YF.2014.a.23782

John Langenus, Voetbal van hier en overal ... (Ghent, 1943) X.629/14242

Andy Lloyd-Williams, Robin van Persie: the Biography. (London, 2011) YK.2012.a.9284.

Andy Lloyd-Williams, RVP: the biography of Robin Van Persie. (London, 2013) YKL.2015.a.5018

Johann Mast, Abe: de biografie. (Gorredijk, 2019) YF.2021.a.9709

Maarten Meijer, Erik ten Hag: the Biography. (London, 2022) ELD.DS.732410

Cornelis Gerardus Maria Miermans, Voetbal in Nederland: een onderzoek naar de maatschappelijke en sportieve aspecten = Association Football in the Netherlands ... (Asse, 1955) 7920.c.51

Maarten Moll, Wat een goal! Een kleine canon van het moderne voetbal. (Amsterdam, 2012) YF.2013.a.94

Simon Mugford, De Bruyne rules. (London, 2021) YKL.2023.a.11232.

Simon Mugford, Hazard rules. (London, 2020) YKL.2022.a.23127.

Jan Mulder, Chez Stans: een ster in de Rue des Dominicains, 1965-1972. (Amsterdam, 2010) YF.2012.a.14742

Bert Nederlof, Ronald Koeman. Updated ed. (Gouda, 2017) [on order]

Arthur Numan /Mark Guidi, Oranje and blue: the Arthur Numan story. (Edinburgh, 2006) YK.2007.a.18748.

Pieter van Os, Johan Cruijff: de Amerikaanse jaren. (Amsterdam, 2012) YF.2013.a.678.

Thomas Rijsman, Marokkaanse trots: smaakmakers in de Eredivisie. (Amsterdam, 2020) YF.2021.a.13186

Jaap Stam, Jaap Stam: Head to Head. (London, 2001) YK.2002.a.20603

Finbar van der Veen, Sportman: de biografie van Jan Klaassens. (Deventer, 2019) YF.2021.a.18006

Rob van Vuure, Koeman complete: een gouden carriere in 1000 feiten, quotes en anekdotes. (Deventer, 2024) [On order]

Raf Willems, België, de eerste wereldkampioen voetbal: Rode Duivels winnaar Olympische Spelen Antwerpen 1920. (Noorderwijk, 2019) YF.2021.a.12517