About

Sportvereniging Roda Juliana Combinatie Kerkrade is a Dutch professional association football club located in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC Kerkrade plays in the Eredivisie. The club was founded after a merger between Rapid JC and Roda Sport in 1962. They were placed in the Eerste Divisie, and after a relegation they were promoted back to the top division in 1973, where they would stay for 41 years until relegating in 2014. In the 2009 season the added Kerkrade to the name to create brand awareness and get financial support. Roda JC is known as a "coal-miner's club". Fans of arch rival MVV, from the provincial capital of Maastricht, pronounce those words condescendingly. In Kerkrade and surroundings however, they are pronounced with pride and respect. The last Dutch coal-mines were closed in the 1960s, but the southeastern part of the Netherlands' most southern province, Limburg, is still referred to as the Mijnstreek ('mine district') today. The coal-mines are still industrious in folk songs in the regional dialect and in the stories of old miners, reminiscing of an era that will never return. Southern Limburg will always be their home. Their team, in most cases, is Roda JC. Roda JC's club honours include seven European campaigns and six KNVB cup finals, of which two were won. One of the predecessors in club's "family tree" of mergers, Rapid JC, were champions of the Netherlands in 1956. Ten out of eleven players on that Rapid JC team were coal-miners.