With the much-discussed magic of cup football come both expectations and questions: who will excel this year? Who will disappoint? Who will rise to the ultimate occasion?
With a lot of the magic of football having disappeared in recent times thanks to the meteoric rise of revenues and oil powers like the Saudi league, lovers of the world's game turn to these surprise packages.
For this year's fairytale story we might have to take a trip to quaint Katwijk aan Zee, a coastal town in the Netherlands.
Founded as Quick in February 1920 by a small group of teenage friends in a small herring shed, the club had to settle for the name 'Quick Boys' after another team from nearby The Hague had already taken up the name 'Quick' at the local football association. Up to that point, Katwijk had been a fisherman's town with a nearly exclusive Christian demographic - a given that would permanently make Quick Boys play their games on Saturday instead of Sunday from 1929 onwards.
After World War II had ended in the Netherlands, the club would rise to eventually become the biggest amateur club in the country with 20 titles, of which 11 were won in the Saturday league and two were national championships. The first big win was the first game back at their own ground after clearing the pitch of German mines and rebuilding both the goals and dressing rooms. The opponents? The Royal Air Force.
Cup fighters
Quick Boys' first major title came in 1953 when the Narren, or Jesters in English, won the KNVB Cup for amateurs against local rivals Rijnsburgse Boys. It would take over 50 years for the club to come close to cup glory,
In the 2007/08 season, the team in blue-and-white fought its way to the quarter-finals with wins over two amateur sides and the U21 side of sc Heerenveen. Eredivisie side NAC Breda would eventually prove to be be three sizes too big and leave Sportpark Nieuw-Zuid with a 3-0 win.
Sixteen years and only three cup entries later, Quick Boys would have their moment of glory again. On October 31st of 2023, none other than professional side NAC Breda were the opponents in the round of 32, again in Katwijk. Quick Boys took their revenge thanks to a Nick Broekhuizen goal, making that season the first with a cup win since 2008/09.
De Graaschap captain Jeffrey Fortes rose to infamy in Katwijk after the experienced defender asked for a "sh*tty amateur club" after De Graafschap's win over fellow first division side FC Emmen. He will have been happy after drawing Quick Boys, but his joy would not last long.
Quick Boys supporters, armed with scarves saying "my sh*tty club", welcomed De Graafschap into their ground and sent them packing after a more than convincing 2-0 win. Local hero Sem van Duijn scored both goals and helped Quick Boys earn their second consecutive win over a professional side.
Quick Boys' adventure in the KNVB Cup would last one more round and ended with a bang after a sensational game away at AZ. The team from Katwijk surprised friend and foe when defender Nigel Ngidi Nwankwo put his team in front after an hour of playing, but fell behind after two quick goals from Dani de Wit and Ernest Poku.
Completely in the team's spirit, Quick Boys played itself alongside AZ when Leonard de Beste headed in the 2-2 in injury time. During the ensuing extra time, AZ jumped in front again but got confonted with the amateurs' bravery when cup hero Sem van Duijn scored is fourth goal of the cup campaign in the 113th minute. Unfortunately for Quick Boys, their adventure ended after penalties, but a fairytale was born.
History makers
Under manager Thomas Duivenvoorden, who joined Quick Boys from fellow Katwijk side FC Rijnvogels in 2023, and without Sem van Duijn who moved to AZ, Quick Boys continued writing their magical story in 2024 when Eredivisie side Almere City FC got the formal invite to Katwijk for a round-of-32 tie against the surprise package of the season prior.
In front of over 4,000 spectators, Almere City got handed a historic loss when Quick Boys booked a 3-0 victory thanks to Ravelino Junte, Milan Zonneveld, and Nick Broekhuizen - a game which made Almere City compensate the 149 traveling supporters in full. Quick Boys made one thing known: they were back and ready to fight.
As fate would have it, Quick Boys would meet a fourth professional team in a row as Eredivisie side Fortuna Sittard had to travel to Katwijk for a meeting with the giant-slayers. The amateurs would confidently win once again and sent Fortuna, the team of former FC Barcelona wunderkind Alen Halilovic, packing after a 3-1 win in front of a sold out 7,000-man crowd.
Quick Boys had made waves in Dutch football and sent out several warnings to the big boys of Dutch football. They'd made enough of an impression to make Robin van Persie, one of the country's biggest-ever stars and current Heerenveen manager, want to avoid them in the next round: "I don't hope so, they're doing fantastic".
As if the football gods would want it to happen, Heerenveen drew Quick Boys in the round-of-16 of the KNVB Cup. And not in the comfort of their own Abe Lenstra Stadion, but away in the icy-cold dunes of Katwijk aan Zee.
The game sold out instantly and Quick Boys had made new scarves with a quote from an opponent: supporters with scarves saying "I don't hope so" filled the ground and the Dirk Kuyt Stand, named after the Katwijk-born Dutch legend whose career started at the club.
Quick Boys were looking for history with a third consecutive win over an Eredivisie side, a feat which no other amateur club in Dutch history had ever completed. After an impressive opening show with plenty of fireworks, Quick Boys proved to be a more than worthy opponent for Van Persie's Heerenveen, which beat NAC Breda 4-2 just days prior to the cup tie.
An ecstatic and fanatic crowd saw Neville Ngidi Nwankwo repeat his trick from a year prior and score the first goal in the biggest game in the club's recent memory, heading the ball in just before half-time. Heerenveen would score the equaliser after the break with their first shot on target and even take the lead late in the second half, but would again concede to the fairytale writers from Katwijk.
After a puzzling substitute which saw Robin van Persie take off his goalkeeper Mickey van der Hart, substitute goalkeeper Andries Noppert would cause a penalty late in the game and thus Milan Zonneveld's equaliser in the 88th minute - a goal which would make Zonneveld once again become the tournament's joint-top goalscorer.
A game in which Quick Boys dictated the pace and were the only side consistently showing the willingness to play, the home side once again caught Noppert lacking when substitute Levi van Duijn headed in his first goal of the tournament and beat a surprisingly rushing Noppert in the air.
What ensued was a more than nervous ending to the extra time period and a new chapter in the history books of Dutch football with the amateurs of Quick Boys beating a third consecutive Eredivisie side in the KNVB Cup. Their success has not even been down to luck - Quick Boys have earned the respect of football fans all over the country with their daring style of play and willingness to fight the biggest of opponents.
The team will have to find their bravery once more in the quarter-finals with former foe AZ being the next opponent, again in Alkmaar. A revenge game for their loss over one year prior: could there be any more of a storybook scenario for the biggest fairytale writers of the current campaign?