Cambuur Leeuwarden have claimed the second promotion spot for next year’s Eredivisie after beating Emmen 4-2 in Drenthe on Tuesday night.
The Friesland club got the party started early as Icham Ferrah opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a glorious solo effort and Fabian Kvam added two in two minutes midway through the first half.
Ferrah bagged a fourth at the start of the second half to leave no way back for Emmen and ensure Cambuur secured promotion with five matches to spare. They will now contest the Keuken Kampioen Divisie title with leaders ADO Den Haag.
Fans let off fireworks as they gathered the stadium in Leeuwarden to greet the team bus when it arrived back from Drenthe at around midnight.
The team last played in the top flight three years ago, when they went down along with fellow northerners Emmen and Groningen.
Since then they have moved into the 15,000-capacity Kooi Stadion and rehired veteran coach Henk de Jong, who previously guided them to promotion in 2013 and 2021.
The 62-year-old said: “This is maybe the most special of them all. We have a lot of very young lads who’ve grown together. This is just the beginning. We’ve mostly played very mature football, although sometimes we neglected to do that.”
De Jong, who also led De Graafschap Doetinchem to the top flight in 2018, said: “Actually it’s the fifth time, because we had the title taken off us,” referring to the 2019/2020 season, which was abandoned because of coronavirus restrictions.
Cambuur were on course to win promotion that year at the expense of Emmen, who were bottom of the Eredivisie when the season stopped. Unlike most European leagues, the Dutch did not conclude their fixtures and no titles were awarded.
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