R. Daring Club Molenbeek

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Royal Daring Club Molenbeek was a football team from the city of Brussels, Belgium until 1973. It was created in 1895 as Daring Club de Bruxelles and was the second club to register to the Belgian Football Association (it thus received the matricule n°2), but it was admitted to the league only in 1903.

[edit] History

From its creation to 1899, the team was playing in blue and white, but changed to red and black. At the same time, they had to move to a new stadium due to the beginning of the building of the Koekelberg Basilica. To solve this problem, it merged with a team from Jette simply named Brussels F.C. to become Daring Brussels F.C., and to play at their stadium. They merged again in 1902 with U.S. Molenbeekoise and Skill F.C. de Bruxelles to become Daring Club de Bruxelles again. The club became very popular at the beginning of the twentieth century. The derbies against Union were very crowdy. At the end of the 1911-12 season the first national title was won. It picked one more two years later (for the last season before the war) after a second place in 1913 behind Union (but before Racing de Bruxelles). During World War I, a new stadium was built in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean where the F.C. Molenbeek Brussels Strombeek currently plays. It was inaugurated in 1920, the year of the 25th anniversary of the club that changed its name to Daring Club de Bruxelles Société Royale. The next year, Daring won the championship again, after a deceiving third place in 1919-20 (that was the first season after the war).

It had to wait until 1936 to come back at the top and win its fourth championship, and the fifth came a year later. In 1938, it finished 2nd. The next season saw a poor performance by Daring to finish 13th (forelast). The club was relegated just before the competition was stopped because of World War II. The team changed its name to Royal Daring Club de Bruxelles in 1950. Twenty years later, the name was finally changed to Royal Daring Club Molenbeek before the club merged with matricule n°47 Royal Racing White to become R.W.D. Molenbeek in 1973. Since that moment, the matricule n°2 is erased.

[edit] Honours

Belgian First Division:
- Winners (5): 1911-12, 1913-14, 1920-21, 1935-36, 1936-37
- Runners-up (4): 1908-09, 1912-13, 1933-34, 1937-38
Belgian Second Division:
- Winners (2): 1954-55, 1958-59
Belgian Cup:
- Winners (1): 1934-35
- Runners-up (1): 1969-70