Strombeek-Bever officially lies in Flemish Brabant, but it has become more Brussels than Flemish over the last few decades. But despite the fact Brussels is one of the founding fathers of Belgian football, this village still had to wait until 1932 before they had their own team. Strombeek Football Club would however build up quite the reputation and history.
One year after the foundation the team started playing the real competitions under a 'new' name FC Strombeek. For decades to come they would not only be in the shadow of the Belgian capital, but also of teams like Union, Anderlecht and RWDM. It wasn't until 50 years after they started playing KFC Strombeek could even consider dreaming of the national leagues. In 1984 they managed to reach the fourth division for the first time. And apart from one year they would stay in the national leagues.
During the 90s it all suddenly went fast. Third division followed in 1996 and only four years later the team promoted to second division. Home ground De Singel has seen quite the divisions throughout its history, but up until then the main focus was more on the results on the pitch. After 2001 that would change drastically. Because in 2002 Brussels football had to say farewell to the glorious RWDM. The merger between White Star, Racing Club de Bruxelles and Daring Club de Bruxelles was one of better teams during the 70s and 80s.
One certain Johan Vermeersch saw an opportunity. The former player of Daring and RWDM, as well as sponsor of RWDM (via his own construction company) had already tried to become chairman of RWDM in 1986. When that team disappeared he looked and found a solution in KFC Strombeek. They moved to Molenbeek, changed their name into FC Molenbeek Brussels Strombeek and Vermeersch became the chairman. Without all of this being an actual and official merger the results were great in the beginning. In 2004 they promoted to first division. But most of the RWDM fans turned their back on the new team.
In 2008 they relegated back to second division and for years they tried to go back to first division and revive the old Molenbeek feeling. A final attempt happened in 2013 when the name was changed into RWDM Brussels FC, but alas. In 2014 the original team from Strombeek had to cease all activities themselves. The few remaining RWDM fans were without a team again. In 2015 RWDM was back however and in the meantime they are back in second division.
But let's go back to De Singel in Strombeek. After the move of KFC Strombeek to Molenbeek there was an empty spot. KFC Borgt decided to move to Strombeek-Bever. Borgt is, just like Strombeek-Bever, part of the bigger Grimbergen. KFC Borgt was created in 1940 but only joined the Belgian FA eight years later. Just like with KFC Strombeek it took a while before they could start looking up. In 1998 the team managed to reach the top regional league for the very first time. After the move to Strombeek the official name became KFC Eendracht Borgt-Strombeek, but the old KFC Strombeek successes didn't immediately come back.
The next few years the team, since 2009 again known as KFC Strombeek, would go up and down between the top regional league and the third regional league. Borgt had their own new team since 2007 as well, but both teams would face some difficult times. The newly founded FC Borght merged with KFC Humbeek in 2017 to become KFC Borght-Humbeek and KFC Strombeek had some financial worries as well.
At the end of 2018 KFC Strombeek was looking for solutions and for quite some time it looked like one of the solutions was a merger with the neighbouring KSC Grimbergen. Being close to a deal, that deal finally fell through. KFC Strombeek decided to hand in their matricule number and start over anew with a new matricule number and a new name, FC Strombeek 1932. Two years later they are still in the lowest regional league, but they're looking towards a bright future with a true Strombeek heart and feeling.
If you want to enjoy our articles in Dutch, you can read them here.