FC Groningen

Wrexham finished their 2025 pre-season global tour with a more understated game against Dutch team FC Groningen (@fcgroningen). So, if you've never heard of them - what is about to unfold is a clash of the Kings in the North. North Wales v North Netherlands.

So, let’s #GetTheBadgeIn for

— a club whose colours, crest, and character are steeped in the history of our Dutch cousins.

Founded in 1971 but rooted in football traditions that stretch back much further, FC Groningen is the pride of the largest city in the north of the Netherlands. This is a city known not just for football, but for trade, learning, architecture — and resilience. The club’s nickname? “Trots van het Noorden” — Pride of the North.

The team plays in green and white, colours taken from Groningen’s flag and coat of arms, echoed in every scarf and every seat at their Euroborg stadium. The badge — a bold, stylised ‘G’ — was chosen in a fan design competition, simple and strong.

And strength has always been part of the story. Groningen the city grew rich as a member of the Hanseatic League (an medieval trading bloc), trading goods across the North Sea and the Baltic. Its ships sailed to places like Lübeck, Riga (and Ipswich) exchanging grain, fish, and wool. It became a city of towers and markets, of merchants and masons. That legacy still lingers.

At the heart of it all stands the Martinitoren, the iconic bell tower beside the Martini Church. The current tower — built between 1469 and 1482 — is the third to stand on the site, after two previous versions were destroyed by lightning. This one was made from Bentheimer sandstone, imported from Germany. Stronger, more fireproof, and better suited to the Gothic style its archittect wanted to emulate. It rose high above the flatlands, inspired by Utrecht’s Dom Tower and funded by the city’s growing wealth.

And it’s not just history. The Martinitoren still bears scars of modern conflict. One of its bells holds a bullet hole — a mark left during fierce fighting in April 1945, when Canadian forces liberated Groningen from German occupation.

That same resilience defines FC Groningen. A club that’s been up and down the leagues, but never forgotten who they are or where they come from. It shone on the European stage in 1983, when a gritty Groningen side shocked Spain’s Athletic Bilbao, knocking them out of the UEFA Cup - a feat they repeated a few years later. They really are the Spanish giant's "Bogey team". For a club from a windswept corner of the Netherlands, these were moments of real pride.

And if the city’s backbone is trade, its future is education. Groningen is home to one of the Netherlands’ most respected universities — the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, founded in 1614 — attracting students from across Europe and far beyond. It has made advances in nanotechnology, "neuromorphic computing" and machine learning. But I have no idea what much of that means.

Yet it gives the city a youthful energy, and the stands at Euroborg often echo with the chants of students and locals alike, united in green and white.

FC Groningen might not have the global profile of Amsterdam or Eindhoven, but they carry something else: identity. Grit. Regional pride. A tower that’s been struck down and rebuilt. A bell that still rings despite the bullet. A city shaping the future. A club that keeps rising, no matter the odds.

Let's see who wins this clash of the North.