K.V. Mechelen

The club was founded in 1904, a few months after the birth of city rival KRC Mechelen. The club had a first successful period in the 1940s. During World War II, in 1943, the club won their first domestic title. The second title came a few years later, in 1946, and in 1948 the club was successful again. After that, the club fell back. In 1954, they managed to finish third, only one point behind champions Anderlecht, but that was their last good season. Two years later, Mechelen was relegated to second division. During the 1960s and the 1970s, Mechelen went up and down between the first and second division.

The club enjoyed a spell of both domestic and European success in the period from 1987 to 1992. During these five seasons, Mechelen won one Belgian championship and one Belgian cup title. They also finished second in the Belgian league twice and lost the Belgian Cup final twice. After winning the domestic cup title in 1987, and hence qualifying for the European Cup Winners' Cup, they completed the extraordinary achievement of winning this tournament in 1988. Mechelen are the last Belgian team that has won a European trophy.

KV Mechelen seemed to be on its way to becoming one of the top clubs in Belgium, but quickly declined when their chairman Cordier (who owned the rights to most of their players) was forced to sell many players due to his company's bad results. On 10 June 2007, the team achieved promotion to the Belgian First Division. Two years later in 2009, KV Mechelen played the final of the Belgian Cup, losing it 2–0 to Genk. One year after that, they stranded in the semi-finals with a 2–2 draw and a 1–0 loss against KAA Gent.

After a successful 2010 and four seasons for the yellow reds, coach Peter Maes decided to leave Malinwa and signed a four-year contract with Lokeren. Malinwa made a deal with Marc Brys to take over from Maes. Marc Brys was coach of FC Den Bosch, a second division team in the Netherlands. After two seasons he was sacked and Harm Van Veldhoven was appointed for the 2012–13 season. Van Veldhoven also could not lead KV Mechelen to Play-off 1, the clubs' recent unspoken ambition. He was fired in December 2013. At the end of the 2013–14 season KV Mechelen appointed Aleksandar Janković as head coach. Despite Janković's inability to lead the club to Play-off 1, Janković left for topclub Standard Liège and Mechelen had to appoint a new manager. The club ended up choosing Yannick Ferrera for the vacant job, who had just been fired as manager of Standard Liège.

2017 through 2019 proved to be a tumultuous period for the club. After eleven seasons at the highest level, the club was relegated on the last day of the 2017–18 season as a 2–0 win over Waasland-Beveren left them in last place on goal difference, due to Eupen beating Moeskroen by a bigger margin (4–0). During the following season, while the club was very successful on the pitch, winning both the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B and the 2018–19 Belgian Cup, the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal emerged in which the club was accused of match-fixing their final match of the 2017–18 season, allegedly having attempted to bribe certain players and officials of Waasland-Beveren. In March 2019, the club was found guilty and forced to relegate back to the First Division B despite winning promotion, and also denied to take part in the 2019–20 Belgian Cup and 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, the latter for which they had qualified by winning the cup. The club appealed the decision at the Belgian Arbitration Court for Sports which ruled on 10 July 2019 that, in accordance with the rules set by the Royal Belgian Football Association, relegation was not a possible punishment in the circumstances. As a result, the club was punished with a one-season ban from European football and the Belgian Cup. The proceedings were plagued with controversy, with evidence (including witness statements) from an investigation into financial crimes in Belgian football not being made available during these disciplinary proceedings, as well as the impartiality of the prosecutor being called into question.

• Belgian First Division A
  • Champions (4): 1942–43, 1945–46, 1947–48, 1988–89
• Belgian Cup
  • Winners (2): 1986–87, 2018–19
• Belgian Second Division
  • Winners (7): 1925–26, 1927–28, 1962–63, 1982–83, 1998–99, 2001–02, 2018–19
• Belgian Second Division final round
  • Winners: 1981, 2007, 2019
• Belgian Third Division
  • Winners: 2004–05

• European Cup Winners Cup
  • Winners: 1987–88
• European Super Cup
  • Winners: 1988

(2 cups)

European Cup/UEFA Champions League:

- Quarter-finalists in 1990

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1):

- Winners in 1988

- Semi-finalists in 1989

UEFA Super Cup (1):

- Winners in 1988

As of 15 September 2023[10]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  BEL Gaëtan Coucke 4 MF  BEL Toon Raemaekers 5 DF  IDN Sandy Walsh 6 MF  BEL Jannes Van Hecke 7 MF  BEL Geoffry Hairemans 8 MF  GUI Mory Konaté 10 FW  ISR Yonas Malede 11 FW  BEL Nikola Storm 15 GK  BEL Yannick Thoelen 16 MF  BEL Rob Schoofs 17 DF  ALG Rafik Belghali 19 FW  SWE Kerim Mrabti 20 FW  GER Lion Lauberbach 21 DF  BEL Boli Bolingoli

No. Pos. Nation Player 22 DF  BEL Elias Cobbaut (on loan from Parma) 23 MF  BEL Daam Foulon 27 DF  SCO David Bates 28 FW  BEL Frederic Soelle Soelle 29 MF  BEL Bas Van den Eynden 30 DF  BEL Jordi Vanlerberghe 31 GK  BEL Oskar Annell 34 MF  BEL Ngal'ayel Mukau 35 MF  BEL Bilal Bafdili 36 MF  BEL Dirk Asare 40 GK  BEL Jannes Van Hof 70 FW  BEL Norman Bassette (on loan from Caen) 77 FW  GER Patrick Pflücke

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  BEL Dimitri Lavalée (at Sturm Graz until 30 June 2024) — DF  BEL Iebe Swers (at Patro Eisden until 30 June 2024) — DF  BEL Alec Van Hoorenbeeck (at Twente until 30 June 2024)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  BEL Amin Doudah (at Helmond until 30 June 2024) — FW  BEL Julien Ngoy (at Kasımpaşa until 30 June 2024)