Dennis Bergkamp - The Legend That Stands Alone

The club was founded in 1913 as a team for Philips employees. PSV’s history contains two golden eras revolving around the UEFA Cup victory in 1978 and the 1987–88 European Cup victory as part of the continental treble in 1988. The team has won the Eredivisie 21 times, the domestic cup nine times and the Johan Cruijff Shield nine times. Currently, PSV is 28th on the UEFA club coefficients ranking.[4] Throughout the years, PSV established itself as a stepping stone for future world class players like Ruud Gullit, Romário, Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Arjen Robben.

PSV currently has two independent fan bodies. The ‘Supportersvereniging PSV’ was founded in 1920 and currently consists of 14,000 members. They own a fan base within the Philips Stadion.[82] The second one, PSV Fans United, serve a more specific purpose: to improve the atmosphere in the stadium.[83] Besides the fan unions, there are several sets of fans who work together on tifo choreography, like Lighttown Madness among others.[84] The PSV Junior Club was founded by PSV in 1998 for children up to 12 years. Later it was renamed Phoxy Club after Phoxy, PSV’s mascot. Currently, more than 20,000 children are member. Every year, the Phoxy Club Day is organized, offering activities for members who are joined by the first team squad.[85][86] During pre-season, PSV also holds an Open Day for people of all ages; the event gives the opportunity for sponsors and new player signings to be presented.[87] The official club anthem was composed by Kees van der Weijden and Jo Vermeulen. It was introduced in 1950 and is currently sung at every home match at 19 minutes and 13 seconds into the game - the time mirroring the club’s foundation year.[88]
PSV’s main rivalry is with Ajax, with both teams regularly competing for the league title in the last forty years. The PSV fans, whose club has reserved the kit number ‘12’ for them, refer to themselves as ‘boeren’ (peasants); the word can be heard chanted through the home ground after every PSV goal. Its reference designates taking pride in their Brabantian heritage, as opposed to the metropolitan Amsterdam area. The Brabantian identity also plays a fundamental role in the club's culture with the Flag of North Brabant being incorporated in shirt design and being displayed in and around the stadium. PSV used to have an ongoing rivalry with FC Eindhoven, which originated in the 1910s. FC Eindhoven, being the older team, manifested itself as the ‘people’s club’, whereas PSV was only open to Philips employees. In the 1940s and 1950s, PSV and FC Eindhoven were both competing for the league title, which increased the feud and divided the City of Light in ‘red-white striped’ and ‘blue-white striped’.[58] Fixtures between the two sides were named the 'Lichtstadderby' ('City of Light Derby'). After FC Eindhoven’s decline in the seventies, the rivalry disappeared. Nowadays relations between the two sets of supporters are generally friendly,during the annual pre-season derby supporters even sit in the same end without any major incidents. Although a friendly rivalry still exists it's mostly felt on the FC Eindhoven side. However it is not uncommon for people in Eindhoven to go to FC Eindhoven on Fridays (the usual matchday in the Eerste Divisie) and to go to PSV on a Saturday or Sunday. In recent times, FC Eindhoven was PSV’s feeder club on several occasions and the clubs share a women’s team and youth setup.