Dutch Side Willem II Looks to Past to Move Ahead with New Crest

Dutch Eredivisie football club Willem II is celebrating its past as it moves toward the future with a new crest.

The club, based in the southern Netherlands city of Tilburg, unveiled the new crest in mid-January and will officially adopt it as of July 1, 2022. It harkens back to the crest the club used between 1952 and 1983, but with a white crown, squared-off serifs on the letterforms, and a revamped football.

Graphic courtesy Willem-II.nl

“We were inspired by our past when creating this new logo. This anniversary season and the fervent desire of many supporters have been reasons for us to change and modernize our logo, while keeping the same look and feel has been important to us,” said Willem II managing director Martin van Geel on the club’s website (translated to English by Google). “What strengthened our ambition to renew the logo was the many favorable reactions to the current anniversary logo.”

Willem II is using a modified version of the 1952-1983 crest this season as it celebrates its 125th anniversary. It includes the words “125 JAAR” (“125 YEARS”) above the monogram.

Willem II finished the 2020-21 Dutch Eredivisie season in 14th place, but has finished as high as second (1998-99) in its history. It was founded in 1896 as Tilburgia, but changed its name in 1898 to honour King William II of the Netherlands, who stationed his military headquarters in Tilburg during the Belgian uprising of 1830 as commander of the Dutch army, spent much time in the city after becoming king in 1840, and died there in 1849.

Feature graphic courtesy Willem-II.nl