KV Oostende dominates the football scene in Ostend, but in the past there have been more teams with a certain influence in that area. Right next to Ostend, in Zandvoorde, you'll find football to be at least as fun as in Ostend. VC Vamos Zandvoorde has been the club of the village for 60 years now.
The team itself mentions they have been founded in 1941 by employees of the Belgian pharma giant UCB. We can only find documentation on the creation of FC Zandvoorde in that year. The same year they joined the Belgian FA (and received matricule number 3055), but the club already ceased to exist in 1947. We don't suspect there is a link with the UCB team as that team joined the Belgian FA in 1944 as Cercle Sportif de l'Union Chimique Belge Zandvoorde, receiving matricule number 4048.
Still in 1944, the name was changed into Sportkring der Union Chimique Belge Zandvoorde. Only five years later, the name became Football Club Union Zandvoorde. Looking at the results on the pitch we can conclude most of their years were spent in the third and fourth regional leagues. Every once in a while the club managed to climb up to the second regional division. That happened amongst others in 1962 and in 2011. But every time it was for one year only.
The team underwent a couple of changes in 2018. FC Union Zandvoorde became a thing of the past and the matricule number started over as Zandvoorde Sportief, with a new name for the actual football team; VC Vamos Zandvoorde. All of that came shortly after the relegation of the men's team to the fourth regional division and the dismissal of their ladies team.
And the name "Vamos" wasn't randomly chosen. Besides the literal translation ("Come on"), each letter separately stands for the new way of working within the club with a high focus on the youth teams. Vertrouwen (Trust), Amusement, Motiveren (Motivation), Opbouwende kritiek (Positive criticism) and Spreken (Speaking) will have to stimulate the footballing youth in Zandvoorde. All of that with such a beautiful background whilst being on the pitch... It cannot get any more romantic than this.
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