Pieter de Waard, the club's former general manager, who was in charge from 2006 to 2023, felt that there was something special about this season. He observed his season ticket was for row 7, seat 6, which corresponded to his lucky numbers 7 and 6. "63 is for the year we were founded, and 76's always been that number for me," he said.

"When I saw the seat number, it was like, this could be a special season."
Telstar has been a fixture in the Eerste Divisie and is currently not a viable candidate for promotion to the Eredivisie. But this season, both the results and the spirit have been different, culminating in a play-off master class that stunned not just Dutch football, but soccer observers on the continent.

Pride, Passion and One Budgerigar Budget
The players and the staff members received a gift after the final whistle, white shirts with "Eredivisie" printed across the chest, and on the back, a play on words: "Guess who 's back?" One of those who did so is the fair current general manager, Leon Annokkée, who was grinning from ear to ear. "This is fantastic. We've done something here that people would never have believed could have been done," he said.

"We have a budget of just over 1 million euros, the smallest in professional football, but we are in the Eredivisie. It's like a boy's book."

But now the club must somehow gear up for the Premier League.

Telstar wi.