Sint-Truidense VV

Also written as STVV, Sint-Truiden, St. Truiden.

The club

Koninklijke Sint-Truidense Voetbalvereniging were formed on 23 February 1924 by the merger of two clubs from the Limburg town of Sint-Truiden, FC Union and FC Goldstar, and carry matricule number 373. The colours, yellow and blue, were chosen to match the colours of the city, and the nickname followed from them: De Kanaries, the Canaries. The club was named Sint-Truidense Voetbal Vereeniging at the founding and became Sint-Truidense Voetbalvereniging in 1947. The first match, against Cercle Tongeren, was watched by nine people.

The name gets shortened in several directions and it is worth being plain about which of them are the same club. Sint-Truiden, Sint-Truidense VV and STVV are all this club, and French-language sources call them Saint-Trond VV; those are four labels for one side. They are not Sint-Niklase SK, a different club from Sint-Niklaas in East Flanders that held matricule 221 and was merged into KSC Lokeren in 2000, and the surface similarity of the two "Sint-" town names is the only thing the two have in common. Nor should the men's first team be read as the women's side: the women of FCL Rapide Wezemaal joined STVV in 2008 and play as Sint-Truidense VV women, the same club but a separate team with its own European history. Sint-Truiden are also not their Limburg neighbours Genk or Lommel, who share the province and nothing else.

The ground is the Stayen, used since 1927 and carrying the sponsor name Daio Wasabi Stayen Stadium in current match listings; capacity is 14,600.

Since 15 November 2017 the club has been owned outright by the Japanese e-commerce company DMM.com, and since the takeover STVV have recruited and developed Japanese players as a matter of policy. Daichi Kamada, Wataru Endo, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Daniel Schmidt, Zion Suzuki, Daiki Hashioka and Joel Chima Fujita all passed through. The chairman is David Meekers and the chief executive is Takayuki Tateishi.

The head coach is the Belgian Frédéric De Meyer, who was promoted from the assistant's role and announced as head coach on 10 June 2026 at the age of 44. He had joined the club in September 2024 and had already taken one match as caretaker, a 3-1 win over Cercle Brugge. He succeeded Wouter Vrancken, whose departure was announced on 25 May 2026. De Meyer's earlier work in Belgium was with RWDM Brussels, Union Saint-Gilloise and KMSK Deinze, and he has also worked with the Congo national team and the Egyptian club Al Masry.

Recent seasons

Sint-Truiden finished ninth in the 2021/22 regular season, 15 wins, 6 draws and 13 defeats from 34 matches, 42 goals scored and 40 conceded. In 2022/23 they were twelfth in the regular season on 11 wins, 9 draws and 14 defeats, 37 scored and 40 conceded. In 2023/24 they were ninth in the regular season with 10 wins, 10 draws and 10 defeats from 30, 35 scored and 46 conceded, and then finished third of six in the Europe play-offs with 3 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats.

2024/25 was the bad one. STVV were fourteenth in the regular season, 7 wins, 10 draws and 13 defeats from 30, 41 scored and 56 conceded, and had to play the relegation play-offs, where they finished first of the four-team group ahead of Cercle Brugge, Kortrijk and Beveren and stayed up.

2025/26 was the best season in decades. Under Wouter Vrancken they were third in the regular season with 57 points from 30 matches, 18 wins, 3 draws and 9 defeats, 47 goals scored and 35 conceded, and held third place through the Champions' play-offs, adding 4 wins, 2 draws and 4 defeats and 14 goals for 11 against to finish on 43 points behind Club Brugge and Union Saint-Gilloise. Ryōtarō Itō and Keisuke Gotō, the latter on loan from Anderlecht, were the leading scorers, with Ilias Sebaoui and the loanee Arbnor Muja also prominent. The Belgian Cup ended in the round of sixteen, 3-3 with Antwerp and out 4-3 on penalties. Third place carried a European place.

Honours and landmarks

Runners-up of the Belgian First Division once, in 1965/66, under Raymond Goethals, who had arrived at the club in 1959; that remains the best league finish in the club's history. Winners of the Belgian Second Division four times, in 1986/87, 1993/94, 2008/09 and 2014/15. Winners of the Belgian League Cup once, in 1998/99. Runners-up in the Belgian Cup twice, in 1970/71 and 2002/03, with no win in the competition.

Léopold Appeltans was the club's leading player in the late 1930s and on 21 November 1948 became the first STVV player to be capped by Belgium. The 2026/27 campaign is the club's 103rd season and their twelfth consecutive season in the Belgian top division.

Notable scorelines

The record European win is 6-0 at home to Spartak Varna of Bulgaria in the first round of the 1999 Intertoto Cup, part of an 8-1 aggregate that also took in a 2-1 win in Bulgaria. The heaviest European defeats are both 0-2, at home to Austria Wien in the third round of that same 1999 Intertoto Cup and at home to Tobol of Kazakhstan in the second round in 2003.

Domestically, the 2025/26 season produced a 3-2 home win over Club Brugge, a 3-1 home win over Gent and a 3-0 home win over Mechelen in the Champions' play-offs, along with a 0-3 home defeat by Westerlo and 4-1 away at Dender. The club's all-time domestic record win and record defeat were not established from the sources read here.

European record

Sint-Truiden's European history is unusually thin for a club of their standing, and until this season consisted entirely of the Intertoto Cup. The overall record before the current campaign was 9 matches, 6 wins, no draws and 3 defeats, 16 goals scored and 8 conceded.

In the 1999 Intertoto Cup they beat Spartak Varna 8-1 on aggregate in the first round, 6-0 at home and 2-1 away, then beat Ararat Yerevan 5-1 on aggregate, 3-1 at home and 2-0 in Armenia, and went out in the third round to Austria Wien, beaten 2-0 at the Stayen and winning the return 2-1 for a 3-2 aggregate defeat. In the 2003 Intertoto Cup they entered at the second round and lost to Tobol of Kazakhstan, 0-2 at home and 0-1 away, out 0-3. That was the last European football the club played for more than twenty years, and it came in the same year as their most recent Belgian Cup final.

Third place in 2025/26 put STVV into the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League play-off round, the first time in the club's history that they have competed in the Europa League. Whether the club counts the Intertoto ties as a separate competition or reads the current run as a first proper European campaign is a matter of bookkeeping; the club's own season record describes 2026/27 as their first Europa League.

Quotes

On the appointment of Frédéric De Meyer as head coach on 10 June 2026, chief executive Takayuki Tateishi said "De keuze voor Frédéric is voor ons heel logisch" — the choice of Frédéric is entirely logical for us — and added "STVV geeft kansen aan getalenteerde mensen die hun waarde bewijzen", that STVV gives opportunities to talented people who prove their worth.

De Meyer himself said "Ik ben trots dat ik het vertrouwen krijg als nieuwe hoofdtrainer", that he was proud to be given the trust as new head coach, and "Haspengouw voelt intussen als een tweede thuis voor mij" — Haspengouw, the Hesbaye region around Sint-Truiden, by now feels like a second home to him.

The assistant coach Sepp De Roover, on his own extension, said "Het is een plezier om bij STVV aan de slag te zijn", that it is a pleasure to be at work at STVV, and his fellow assistant Jan Van Steenberghe said "De samenwerking binnen de technische staf en club is fantastisch", that the cooperation within the technical staff and the club is fantastic.

Right now (2026/27)

Frédéric De Meyer is the head coach, with Sepp De Roover and Jan Van Steenberghe retained as assistants and Renaat Philippaerts as physical coach. Shōgo Taniguchi is captain.

The Belgian Pro League has expanded to 18 clubs this season and dropped the play-off format it had used for seventeen years, so this is a straight round-robin running from 7 August 2026 to 23 May 2027 with the bottom two relegated. STVV have drawn both of their opening matches. They drew 1-1 with Lommel at the Stayen on 8 August 2026, Ilias Sebaoui equalising on 64 minutes after Ruud Seuntjens had scored a 24th-minute penalty, then drew 3-3 away at Cercle Brugge on 14 August, Ryan Merlen scoring inside the first minute and again on 37, Nelson Ishiwatari making it 3-1 two minutes into the second half, and Cercle coming back through Erick on 82 and a Loïc Mbe Soh own goal in the third minute of added time. That leaves them twelfth of eighteen with 2 points from 2 matches, 4 scored and 4 conceded, having played a game fewer than most of the division because of Europe.

Europe is the story of the moment. STVV entered the Europa League at the play-off round with a coefficient of 12.450 and were drawn against Omonia of Cyprus. They won the first leg 1-0 at the Daio Wasabi Stayen Stadium on 20 August 2026, the goal coming from the captain Shōgo Taniguchi in the fourth minute of added time; Georgi Kabakov of Bulgaria refereed. The return in Nicosia is on 27 August 2026, and its result was not established from the sources read here. Winning would take the club into the Europa League league phase; losing would drop them into the Conference League league phase rather than out of Europe.

Summer transfer business was light. Joedrick Pupe's loan from Vancouver Whitecaps was made permanent on 1 July 2026. Keisuke Gotō returned to Anderlecht at the end of his loan, Simen Juklerød left on a free for DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda, and Rihito Yamamoto joined SC Freiburg for an undisclosed fee. Pre-season was won throughout: 2-1 at Thes Sport, 6-0 at Zepperen-Brustem, 4-0 at Patro Eisden Maasmechelen, 2-1 at Luzern, 1-0 at RFC Liège and a goalless draw at home with Al Jazira.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.