# 2023–24 Willem II season

The 2023–24 season is Willem II's 128th season in existence and second consecutive in the Eerste Divisie. They also competed in the KNVB Cup.
After a slow start to the season which saw the club fall to 15th position in the Eerste Divisie, with only one win in four games, culminating in a 4–1 loss to arch-rival NAC Breda, manager Reinier Robbemond was fired by the club on 5 September 2023.
On 16 September 2023, the club introduced Peter Maes as their new head coach, succeeding Robbemond. The appointment of Maes marked the club's first-ever Belgian head coach and his first coaching venture outside of Belgium. Under Maes' guidance, the team secured victories in their initial six matches and on Matchday 14, following a 2-1 home victory over Jong FC Utrecht, Willem II took over the 1st position in the Eerste Divisie.
The run of good play continued under Maes and on Matchday 37 late substitute Michael de Leeuw scored in the 93rd minute to earn a 1-1 draw on the road against FC Dordrecht. The draw earned Willem II enough points on the season to secure promotion back to the Eredivisie for the 2024-25 season. To finish off the season, on the final match day, Willem II came back from a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2 on a stoppage-time goal by midfielder Ringo Meerveld to secure the Eerste Divisie championship.

## Players
### First-team squad

    As of 21 December 2023
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 21 | GK | NED | Joshua Smits |
| 24 | GK | NED | Connor van den Berg |
| 41 | GK | NED | Maarten Schut |
| 3 | DF | NED | Freek Heerkens (captain) |
| 4 | DF | NED | Erik Schouten (2nd captain) |
| 5 | DF | ISL | Rúnar Þór Sigurgeirsson |
| 20 | DF | NED | Valentino Vermeulen |
| 30 | DF | AUT | Raffael Behounek |
| 33 | DF | NED | Tommy St. Jago |
| 34 | DF | NED | Amine Lachkar |
| 44 | DF | NED | Niels van Berkel |
| 22 | DF | NED | Rob Nizet |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 6 | MF | BEL | Matthias Verreth |
| 10 | MF | NED | Max de Waal |
| 16 | MF | NED | Ringo Meerveld |
| 27 | MF | NED | Dani Mathieu |
| 29 | MF | NED | Thijs Oosting |
| 32 | MF | NED | Jesse Bosch |
| 7 | FW | NED | Nick Doodeman |
| 9 | FW | SUR | Jeredy Hilterman (on loan from Almere City) |
| 11 | FW | SWE | Max Svensson |
| 17 | FW | NED | Patrick Joosten |
| 18 | FW | COD | Jeremy Bokila |
| 23 | FW | NED | Michael de Leeuw |
| 35 | FW | NED | Khaled Razak |

## Transfers
### In

| Date | Position | No. | Player | From club | Notes |
| 12 July 2023 | MF | 10 | Max de Waal | Ajax U21 | Free Transfer |
| 28 July 2023 | DF | 30 | Raffael Behounek | WSG Tirol | Transfer |
| 31 July 2023 | FW | 17 | Patrick Joosten | Apollon Limassol FC | Free Transfer |
| 24 August 2023 | FW | 9 | Jeredy Hilterman | Almere City FC | Loan |
| 28 August 2023 | DF | 5 | Rúnar Thór Sigurgeirsson | Östers IF | Transfer |
| 1 September 2023 | DF | 33 | Tommy St. Jago | FC Utrecht | Free Transfer |
| 24 October 2023 | GK | 41 | Maarten Schut | Willem II youth team | Transfer |
| 24 October 2023 | FW | 35 | Khaled Razak | Willem II youth team | Transfer |
| 20 January 2024 | DF | 22 | Rob Nizet | K.F.C. Lommel S.K. | Free Transfer |

### Out

| Date | Position | No. | Player | From club | Notes |
| 31 May 2023 | MF | 13 | Leeroy Owusu | Odense Boldklub | Free Transfer |
| 9 June 2023 | FW | 7 | Elton Kabangu | Royale Union Saint-Gilloise | Free Transfer |
| 24 June 2023 | DF | 6 | Wessel Dammers | Randers FC | Transfer |
| 3 July 2023 | FW | 9 | Jizz Hornkamp | Heracles Almelo | Transfer |
| 4 July 2023 | MF | 22 | Wesley Spieringhs | Roda JC Kerkrade | Free Transfer |
| 4 August 2023 | GK | 1 | Kostas Lamprou | Feyenoord | Free Transfer |
| 4 August 2023 | MF | 8 | Pol Llonch | SD Ponferradina | Free Transfer |
| 5 August 2023 | DF | 25 | Lucas Woudenberg | Valenciennes FC | Transfer |
| 1 September 2023 | FW | 14 | Joeri Schroijen | Helmond Sport | Free Transfer |
| 24 October 2023 | FW | 36 | Jelte Pal | Without a team | Terminated |

## Pre-season and friendlies

Win  Draw  Loss  Fixtures

## Competitions
### Overall record

| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| Eerste Divisie | 13 August 2023 | 10 May 2024 | Matchday 1 | 1st | 38 | 23 | 10 | 5 | 77 | 35 | +42 | 060.53 |
| KNVB Cup | 2 November 2023 | 19 December 2023 | First round | Second round | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | +0 | 050.00 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 40 | 24 | 10 | 6 | 81 | 39 | +42 | 060.00 |
Last updated: 10 May 2024 Source: Soccerway

### Eerste Divisie
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or qualification |
| 1 | Willem II (C, P) | 38 | 23 | 10 | 5 | 77 | 35 | +42 | 79 | Promotion to the Eredivisie |
| 2 | Groningen (P) | 38 | 22 | 9 | 7 | 71 | 30 | +41 | 75 | Promotion to the Eredivisie |
| 3 | Roda JC Kerkrade | 38 | 21 | 12 | 5 | 69 | 34 | +35 | 75 | Qualification for promotion play-offs |
| 4 | Dordrecht | 38 | 18 | 15 | 5 | 74 | 51 | +23 | 69 | Qualification for promotion play-offs |
| 5 | ADO Den Haag | 38 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 72 | 50 | +22 | 63 | Qualification for promotion play-offs |
* ↑ Winner of the Second Period (Rounds 10–19)
* ↑ Winner of the Third and Fourth Period (Rounds 20–29 and 30–38)
* ↑ Winner of the First Period (Rounds 1–9)

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Last updated: 10 May 2024. Source:

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |
| Ground | A | H | A | H | H | A | A | H | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H |
| Result | D | W | D | L | W | L | W | W | W | W | W | W | L | W | W | W | W | D | W | W | W | D | D | D | W | W | L | L | W | W | W | W | D | W | D | D | D | W |
| Position | 11 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |

#### Matches

The league fixtures were unveiled on 30 June 2023. '

### KNVB Cup
## Awards
### Team Awards

| Award | Competition | Ref. |
| Second Period Champions | Eerste Divisie | |
| Season Champions | Eerste Divisie | |

### Individual Awards

| Award | Player | Competition | Ref. |
| Best Keeper | Joshua Smits | Eerste Divisie | |