KV Mechelen

File:KV Mechelen.png
Full name	Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen
Nickname(s)	The Yellow Reds, Malinois, Malinwa, De Kakkers
Founded	1904
Ground	Argosstadion Achter de Kazerne (Capacity: 13,213)
Chairman	Johan Timmermans
Manager	Vacant
League	Belgian Pro League
2010–11	Belgian Pro League, 7th Group A Europa League Playoff, 3rd
Home colours Away colours

Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen^[1] (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjɛ.loː ˈrɛt ˈkoː.nɪŋk.lə.kə ˈvud.bɑl.ˌklʏp ˈmɛ.xə.lə(n)]) (often simply called KV Mechelen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkaː ˈveː ˈmɛxələ(n)]) or KV (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkaː ˈveː]), or by their former French naming FC Malinois), is a Belgian professional football club based in Mechelen in the Antwerp province. KV Mechelen plays in the Belgian Pro League. They have won 4 Belgian championships and 1 Belgian Cups, as well as the 1987-88 European Cup Winners' Cup. They collected all of their honours in the 1940s and in the 1980s.

KV Mechelen was founded in 1904 and, in 1921–22, promoted to the first division. After two successive relegation and promotion, they were back for good between 1928–29 and 1955–56. In the 1960s and 1970s, the club had several promotions and relegations between the first and second division. From 1983–84 to 1996–97, they had a successful first division spell, with a title and several 2nd and 3rd place finishes. During that period, they also won a European Cup Winners' Cup and they reached the same competition semi-finals as well as the European Cup quarter finals. KV Mechelen eventually declined in the late 1990s, though they had two more spells at the highest level from 1999–2000 to 2000–01 and in 2002–03. At the end of that season, the club did not receive their Belgian professional football license, and so they were relegated to the third division with a 9-point penalty. After two consecutive promotions in 2004–05 and in 2006–07, KV Mechelen has come back to the first division.

The club outfits are a striped yellow and red shirt with black shorts and socks. They play their home matches at the Argosstadion Achter de Kazerne, where Argos is their stadium sponsor and Achter de Kazerne means 'Behind the Barracks'. The stadium has been named so because there used to be barracks next to stadium. KV Mechelen fans have a long-standing rivalry with KRC Mechelen.

History[link]

The club was founded in 1904, a few months after the birth of city rival KRC Mechelen. The club had a first successful period in the 1940s. During World War II, in 1943, the club won their first domestic title. The second title came a few years later, in 1946, and in 1948 the club was successful again. After that, the club fell back. In 1954, they managed to finish third, only one point behind champions RSC Anderlecht, but that was their last good season. Two years later, Mechelen was relegated to second division. During the 60s and the 70s, Mechelen went up and down between the first and second division. The club enjoyed a brief spell of both domestic and European success in the period of 1987–1990. They are now today still the last Belgian team that won a European trophy. KV Mechelen seemed to be on its way to becoming one of the top clubs in Belgium, but quickly declined when their chairman Cordier (who owned the rights to most of their players) was forced to sell many players due to his company's bad results. On June 10, 2007, the team achieved promotion to the Belgian First Division. Two years later in 2009, KV Mechelen played the finale of the Belgian Cup, losing it 2–0 to KRC Genk. One year after that, they stranded in the semi finale with a 2–2 draw and a 1–0 loss against KAA Gent. After a successful 2010 and four seasons for the yellow reds, coach Peter Maes decided to leave Malinwa and signed a four year contract with Sporting Lokeren. Malinwa made a deal with Marc Brys to take over from Maes. Marc Brys was coach of FC Den Bosch, a second division team in the Netherlands. After two seasons he was sacked.

Honours[link]

Domestic[link]

• Belgian First Division:
  • Winners (4): 1942–43, 1945–46, 1947–48, 1988–89
• Belgian Second Division:
  • Winners (6): 1925–26, 1927–28, 1962–63, 1982–83, 1998–99, 2001–02
• Belgian Second Division Final Round:
  • Winners (2): 1981, 2007
• Belgian Third Division:
  • Winners (1): 2004–05
• Belgian Cup:
  • Winners (1): 1986–87

International[link]

• European Cup Winners Cup:
  • Winners (1): 1987–88
• European Super Cup:
  • Winners (1): 1988
• Joan Gamper Trophy:
  • Winners (1): 1989

European record[link]

As of December, 2008.

A = appearances, GP = games played, W = won, D = drawn, L = lost, GF = goals for, GA = goals against.

Matches[link]

• R = round
• Group = group stage / Group 1 = first group stage / Group 2 = second group stage
• 1/8 = eighth finals / 1/4 = quarter-finals / 1/2 = semi-finals
• F = final

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Score
1987–88	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1R		Dinamo Bucureşti	1–0, 2-0
		2R		St. Mirren	0–0, 2-0
		1/4		Dinamo Minsk	1–0, 1-1
		1/2		Atalanta	2–1, 2-1
		F		Ajax	1–0
1988	UEFA Super Cup	F		PSV	3–0, 0-1
1988–89	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1R		Avenir Beggen	5–0, 3-1
		2R		Anderlecht	1–0, 2-0
		1/4		Eintracht Frankfurt	1–0, 0-0
		1/2		Sampdoria	2–1, 0-3
1989–90	European Cup	1R		Rosenborg	5–0, 0-0
		2R		Malmö FF	4–1, 0-0
		1/4		Milan	0–0, 0-2 (AET)
1990–91	UEFA Cup	1R		Sporting CP	2–2, 0-1
1991–92	UEFA Cup	1R		PAOK	0–1, 1-1
1992–93	UEFA Cup	1R		Örebro	2–1, 0-0
		2R		Vitesse	0–1, 0-1
1993–94	UEFA Cup	1R		IFK Norrköping	1–1 (AET), 1-0
		2R		MTK Hungária	5–0, 1-1
		3R		Cagliari	1–3, 0-2

Summary of best results[link]

(2 cups)

European Cup/UEFA Champions League:

- quarter-finalists in 1990

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1):

- winners in 1988

- semi-finalists in 1989

UEFA Super Cup (1):

- winners in 1988

Current squad[link]

As of 11 March, 2012

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Clint Alliet 2 DF Dino Škvorc 3 DF Boris Pandža 4 MF Seth de Witte 5 DF Kenny Van Hoevelen 6 MF Bjarni Viðarsson 7 MF Boubacar Dialiba 8 DF Xavier Chen 9 MF Jonathan Wilmet 10 MF Abdul-Yakuni Iddi 11 FW Kevin Vandenbergh 12 FW Jaime Alfonso Ruiz 14 MF Liroy Zhairi

No. Position Player 15 MF Julien Gorius 16 MF Kevin Geudens 18 MF David Destorme 19 MF Maxime Biset 20 GK Wouter Biebauw 21 DF Anthony Van Loo 22 MF Robin Henkens 23 GK Olivier Renard 26 DF Antonio Ghomsi 27 MF Jonas Laureys 29 MF Alessandro Cordaro 50 GK Yves Ma-Kalambay

For recent transfers, see List of Belgian football transfers summer 2011.

Out on loan[link]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Yannick Thoelen (at Lommel) 2 DF Jérémy Huyghebaert (at Roeselare) 13 MF Tom Pietermaat (at Rupel Boom) 22 DF Romeo van Dessel (at Antwerp) 24 DF Zinho Chergui (at Antwerp) 25 FW Pan Pierre Koulibaly (at Sint-Niklaas) 55 Dick Van Sulumoingi (at wikki Tourists F.C.)

Notable players[link]

This list of "famous" or "notable" sporting persons has no clear inclusion or exclusion criteria. Please help to define clear inclusion criteria and edit the list to contain only subjects that fit that criteria. (January 2010)

Managers[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• (Dutch) Official website
• (Dutch) Fanclub website
• KV Mechelen at UEFA.COM
• KV Mechelen at EUFO.DE
• KV Mechelen at Weltfussball.de
• KV Mechelen at Playerhistory.com
• KV Mechelen at Transfermarkt.de
• KV Mechelen at Football Squads.co.uk
• KV Mechelen at National Football Teams.com
• KV Mechelen at Football-Lineups.com

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: KV Mechelen

Xavier Chen

Personal information
Full name	Xavier Chen
Date of birth	(1983-10-05) 5 October 1983 (age 28)
Place of birth	Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Belgium
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Right Back
Club information
Current club	K.V. Mechelen
Number	8
Youth career
1991–2003	R.S.C. Anderlecht
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2003–2007	K.V. Kortrijk	122	(2)
2007–	K.V. Mechelen	91	(0)
National team
2001–2002	Belgium U-19	11	(0)
2011–	Taiwan	1	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 7 May 2011. † Appearances (Goals).

Xavier Chen (Chinese: 陳昌源/夏維耶, born October 5, 1983 in Sint-Agatha-Berchem) is a Belgian-born Taiwanese footballer who plays mostly as a right back. He currently plays for Y.R. K.V. Mechelen. He previously played for R.S.C. Anderlecht (1991–2003) and K.V. Kortrijk (2003–2007) and captained the Belgium national under-19 football team.

Chen was born to a Taiwanese father and a Belgian mother. His paternal grandfather is a former diplomat who still lives in Taiwan. He completed his law master degree in Université libre de Bruxelles, to be the only active European first division football players in modern era obtaining a master degree in law. It was by chance that the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) discovered Chen in 2009. It is confirmed that China also made an attempt to recruit Chen three months later. However, in that time the nation Chen would have played on is unknown. Besides that, Belgium was Chen's first priority. The only advantage of Taiwan side is his grandfather lives there, with Xavier Chen himself was overwhelmed by fan's passion

On May 24, 2011, Chen gave his nod to represent Taiwan (also known for official reasons as Chinese Taipei).^[1][2]

International career[link]

Xavier Chen made his international debut against Malaysia on July 3, 2011 and scored the winning goal, this made Taiwan's first time in 10 years, to win the opponent who is ranked below FIFA 150. The fan attendance that game is also record breaking, official number reached 15,335, 3 times better than before.

International goals[link]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	03 July 2011	Taipei Municipal Stadium, Taipei, Taiwan	Malaysia	3–2	3–2	2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying

References[link]

External links[link]

• K.V. Mechelen bio
• CTFA PR Director revealed his discovery on local football media
• Xavier Chen's official facebook fan page

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