AZ Alkmaar will come up against Irish minnows Dundalk in Group D of the Europa League , The Lilywhites have qualified for the Europa League for the first time and will play AZ Alkmaar next Thursday in the Netherlands. Here is all you need to know about the Kaaskoppen (Cheeseheads)



AZ Alkmaar is a football club in the Netherlands that was founded in 1967 after the merger of two clubs Alkmaar 57 and FC Zanstreek, The club was named "AZ 67" when it was founded . The "AZ" in AZ Alkmaar stands for Alkmaar Zanstreek and are usually known as AZ, The club is located in Alkmaar, North Holland and are nicknamed "Cheeseheads" because of Alkmaar's well known cheese markets.



The club have won two Eredivise League titles with the first coming in the 1980/1981 season with German coach Georg Kessler in Charge, The 1980's were AZ best years with their All-Time top Goal scorer Kees Kist playing up front for the Eredivise champions.Kist went on to score 212 goals for AZ Alkmaar and became the first Dutch player to win the Golden boot in 1979.



AZ followed up their league success in 1981 with two Dutch cup's in two years, their first of four for the club came in 1978 with the second in 1981, third in 1982 and the fourth coming in 2013 after defeating PSV 2-1, American international Jozy Altidore scoring the decisive goal.



AZ Alkmaar have competed in Europe's second competition (Europa League/Uefa Cup) Twelve times, The furthest the Cheeseheads have ever gone was to the final in 1981 but lost over two legs to "The Tractor Boys" Ipswich town. After losing 3-0 in England the second leg was played in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, AZ won the game 4-2 but unfortunately were defeated 5-4 on aggregate and the UEFA Cup went to England.



But the good times can only last for so long and in 1988 AZ Alkmaar were relegated from the Eredivise. The club spent several years in the second division before businessman Dirk Scheringa came into the club as president during the mid 90's and turned the club around. AZ were promoted back to the Eredivise in 1996, went back down in 1997 and came back up in 1998. (talk about a Yo-Yo club)



AZ have not been relegated since and qualified for the 2004/2005 Uefa cup. AZ broke their 22 year hiatus from European football and reached the semi final but were knocked out by Sporting Lisbon on away goals after the two legs finished 4-4 on aggregate.A year later AZ moved out of their old stadium "The Alkmaarderhout" and into their new stadium "AFAS Stadion" that can hold 17,000.



The second of AZ Alkmaar's Eredivise titles came when now Former Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United manger Louis Van Gaal was in charge, LVG took over in 2005 and after a few years of disappointment came the biggest achievement in AZ Alkmaar's history. In 2009 AZ Alkmaar were crowned Eredivise champions, It was 28 years since their last Eredivise title and with the league win came a spot in the UEFA Champions League.



AZ Alkmaar qualified for it's first Champions League, but have not graced club footballs biggest stage since, AZ were place in Group H of the 2009/2010 season of the Champions League alongside Arsenal, Standard Liege and Olympiacos. They did not win a game drawing four and losing two to Arsenal and Olympiacos both away from home.



But with AZ Alkmaar being a selling club they have not got one player from the 2009 season in their current squad and lost players well known to Premier League fans with Graziano Pellè, Mousa Dembélé, Sébastien Pocognoli, Jeremain Lens, Ragnar Klavan and Héctor Moreno, the man who broke Luke Shaw's leg last season in the Champions League with a horrendous tackle all part of the title winning team of 2008/2009.



When you're a selling club it can be hard for the people at the top of the club and AZ have some unusual names behind the scenes with some fascinating backgrounds. The current Executive Director for AZ Alkmaar is former MLB player Robert Eenhoorn who spent four seasons in Major League Baseball and played with the New York Yankees. Eenhoorn spent seven years as Netherlands baseball coach between 2001-2008 then spent five years as technical director of the Netherlands baseball national team from 2009-2014 and took over as AZ Executive Director later that year.



Former footballer Max Huiberts is now AZ Alkmaar's Technical Director. Huiberts was a professional footballer for thirteen years and made a name for himself in the Netherlands before going to Germany with Borussia Mönchengladbach, after only making eighteen appearances for Borussia Mönchengladbach Max Huiberts moved back to the Netherlands having been away for only one year. AZ signed Huiberts in 1996 as he played 120 times for the club and spent seven years at AZ before hanging up his boots in 2003.



Chairman for AZ Alkmaar is René Neelissen who is also a shareholder and managing Director of Atlas Professionals a Dutch Business who are a provider of recruitment and Human Resource services for energy and marine sectors globally and of course Atlas Professionals are a sponsor of AZ Alkmaar.



The current Manager of AZ Alkmaar is John van den Brom who is a former Dutch International and has managed seven clubs since 2003 including the likes of Vitesse, ADO Den Haag and Anderlecht. Van Den Brom signed a deal with AZ in 2014 after being sacked by Anderlecht he took over from the legendary Dutch striker Marco Van Basten.



Last season AZ finished TH with star striker Vincent Janssen scoring 27 goals in the Eredivise and getting a move to Tottenham this summer. The Dutch side had to beat FK Vojvodina in the Europa League playoffs and they did that with ease winning 3-0 on aggregate after a 3-0 win away in Serbia.

This season AZ have had a decent start to the season in the Eredivise winning three games, drawing one and losing one. But with the loss of key midfielder Markus Henriksen to Hull City last month, it will take a big player to replace his twelve goals last season and Henriksen scored two goals already this season for this young AZ team.



When Vincent Janssen left for Spurs AZ rushed to replace him with 21 year old Nigerian striker Fred Friday who they bought for €1.5 million off LILLESTRØM. Friday is very different to Janssen as Friday is more of a creative striker who uses his pace to run in at angles behind defenders an is very unpredictable , but he is also comfortable on the ball and has great footwork. While Janssen is a out and out goal scorer using any part of his body to get the ball in the back of the net, Janssen has much superior positioning compared to Friday who can be all over the place at times.



Some other names to watch out for in this AZ Alkmaar team are Dabney dos Santos the 20 year old Dutch winger is a typical wide on in a 4-3-3 system right footed so he is a goal threat out wide, Dos Santo has a very similar style as Memphis Depay and Dries Mertens.



Ron Vlaar was a nailed on starter at Aston Villa a couple of seasons ago and after cutting ties with the Birmingham club he has struggled with injuries. But at the age of 31 Vlaar has rejuvenated his career and is playing week in week out as captain in the Eredivise for AZ Alkmaar



AZ Alkmaar squad estimated worth is €35 million while Dundalks squad is estimated to be worth around €1.2 million with is a bit harsh in my opinion.