The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion from the 2020–21 Eerste Divisie.

The oldest remnant of NEC Nijmegen, Eendracht, was formed on 15 November 1900 by three men – August Lodenstijn, Antoon Kuypers and Wouter de Lent – representing the people from the benedenstad (lower town) who, due to their working class status, were not able to play for the major club in the city, Quick 1888.

[1] Due to a lack of funds, Eendracht initially played only friendly matches against teams from other parts of the city until 1903, when the local league in Nijmegen was formed.

Eendracht merged in April 1910 with NVV Nijmegen, a club formed two years earlier by former members of Quick 1888.

When the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) reorganised the league structure in time for the 1956–57 season, NEC found themselves in the lowest semi-professional division, the Tweede Divisie.

NEC flourished, primarily due to the development of players from their youth setup, including Frans Thijssen and Jan Peters.

NEC could not sustain itself with its only major revenue sources being the sale of players and the large subsidy from the Nijmegen council.

New chairman Henk van de Water formed a sponsors' club to raise funds which started to gather momentum.

NEC, about to be promoted from the Eerste Divisie surprised many by defeating Ajax 2–1 away from home in the semi-finals of the 1994 competition, coming up against Rotterdam at De Kuip in the final, it fell once more 2–1.

A few days later, the draw was completed for the second round, which pitted the superstars of Barcelona – with both Bernd Schuster and Diego Maradona – against the small Dutch outfit.

Both players were injured for the tie, though there was still excitement for the fans at the Goffertstadion – NEC raced into a 2–0 lead after 44 minutes, with goals from Anton Janssen and Michel Mommertz, though the Blaugrana would hit back, winning the game 3–2, and strolled to a 2–0 victory at Camp Nou in the second leg.

This position secured participation in the UEFA Cup play-offs, which they won, beating Roda JC, Groningen, and NAC Breda.

With 31 undefeated matches in a row and with a 6–0 home victory at NAC Breda the highlight of the turnaround, NEC achieved European qualification once again.

After a 2–1 victory against Spartak Moscow in Russia with a goal from Lasse Schöne, NEC played their last match in Nijmegen against Udinese.

In the 74th minute, however, Tottenham scored twice to eventually draw 2–2 against Spartak and goals from Collins John and Jhon van Beukering gave NEC a 2–0 victory, and they qualified for the knockout round.

[11] At the end of the 2013–14 season, NEC prevented automatic relegation by holding Ajax to a 2–2 draw in Amsterdam on the last matchday with a brace from Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

[13] They bounced back however at the first attempt after beating Sparta 1–0 on 3 April 2015 to clinch the Eerste Divisie title with six games left.

For the 2019–20 season, the club took the ususual step of appointing three head coaches: Adrie Bogers, Rogier Meijer and Francois Gesthuizen – the club finished in eighth place, which would have granted them a place in the play-offs, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, there was no promotion or relegation between Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie.

The Gofferstadion was a project by the municipal council, but upon completion both local clubs Quick 1888 and NEC refused to play there, as both had their own stadiums and did not want to pay rent for De Goffert.

It therefore took until 1942 for the first match to be played, after NEC's home ground was damaged during the Second World War and the club permanently moved to the Goffert.

The stadium was renovated in the late 1990s, with an increased capacity of 12,500, opening with a friendly match between NEC and RSC Anderlecht, which the home side won 3–1.

In 2016 NEC's board allowed a controversial fan vote on whether to restore the classic chest band, which passed with a slim majority.

Since 1813, Arnhem has been the capital of Gelderland and is historically based on finance and trade, perceived as an office city with modern buildings.

The name Bikkel reportedly refers to the nickname given to former player and coach Ron de Groot, who spent his whole career at the club.