History

Because in 1967, Alkmaar’54 and FC Zaanstreek saw more in a joint future in professional football, the two professional clubs merged in that year to form AZ’67. In the initial years, the club contracted many foreign players, but this led to great debt. In 1972, the two brothers Klaas and Cees Molenaar rescued the team. Once, the millionaire brothers themselves played for KFC (the forerunner of FC Zaanstreek) and in a short period of time they had built a flourishing company in household ware, called Wastora. They wanted one thing and one thing only: to take AZ’67 to the top.

The financial injections of the Molenaar brothers heralded a successful period, that reached great heights at the end of the 1970s. In the period leading up to that, the club had gradually acquired the players that would put AZ on the map. First, there were Kees Kist and Kristen Nygaard in 1972 and 1973, respectively. Subsequent years saw the arrival of such players as Ronald Spelbos, Hugo Hovenkamp, Peter Arntz, Johnny Metgod, Jan Peters, Pier Tol, Eddy Treijtel, Bert van Marwijk, Willem van Hanegem and the Austrian forward Kurt Welzl. George Kessler was the coach and created what may well have been one of the best club teams in the history of professional football.

After earning the Cup in 1978, AZ took the double in 1981, and one year later once again took the KNVB cup. Their most successful season was 1981-1982. After AZ had had its debut in European football in the season 1977-1978 and had been eliminated in the second round of the UEFA Cup Tournament (after penalties) by Barcelona, the club reached the final in 1981. Red Boys Differdange (Luxembourg), Levski Sofia (Bulgaria), Radnicki Nis (Yugoslavia), Lokeren (Belgium) and Sochaux (France) could not stop AZ, but in the final, the Ipswich Town of Frans Thijssen, Arnold Muhren and manager Bobby Robson proved too strong. In England, AZ lost 3-0, which meant that the 4-2 victory in the Olympic Stadium (the Alkmaarderhout stadium was deemed too small) was not enough. One year earlier, in the first round of the EC II tournament, Ipswich was also the winner.

After that, AZ would reach the second round of a European tournament twice, but in 1982 it lost to Liverpool (EC I, 2-2 and 2-3) and one season later, it was Internazionale that knocked the Alkmaar team out of the EC II Tournement (1-0, 0-2).

Then came the lean years. Cees Molenaar passed away in 1979 and six years later, Klaas (who died in 1996) also withdrew. The once so successful AZ (the year of incorporation was removed from the name in 1986) anonymously played its games in the Dutch Erevidisie and demotion (in 1988) was inevitable. In the Eerste Divisie, the club did not play a prominent role, either, until businessman Dirk Scheringa became chairman. AZ became champion in 1996, relegated one year later, but in the next season returned to the Eredivisie under the management of Willem van Hanegem.

Since 2002, the club from Alkmaar was, once again on the rise. The eloquent Co Adriaanse came to AZ in November 2002, after Henk van Stee had left the club. The Amsterdammer had dealt with his dismissal at Ajax and during his first press conference stated that the objective was to achieve European football with AZ. Adriaanse delivered on his promise, by creating a solid collective that put in a great performance in the Dutch Eredivisie. In the spring of 2004, after 22 years European football was secured through a 7-0 victory over RKC Waalwijk. The season after that, AZ reached to the semi-final in the UEFA Cup and achieved a fantastic third place in the Dutch Eredivisie. Adriaanse was responsible, among other things, for introducing such new words as ‘score-board journalism’, ‘residential voetbal’ and ‘cheese watchers’, which he later changed to ‘cheese troopers’.

In the summer of 2005, Co Adriaanse left for the Portuguese top club FC Porto. Louis van Gaal, who previously coached Ajax, FC Barcelona and the Dutch National Team. This year also saw the highest point being reached of the new DSB Stadium, which finally gave the club the possibilities to continue its development. In the season of 2006-2007, AZ moved into its new facility on the edge of the city of Alkmaar, the DSB Stadion.

In the season 2008-2009 AZ became Champion of the Dutch Eredivisie.