{"id":17389,"date":"2026-05-29T21:30:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/17389\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T21:30:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:30:38","slug":"depay-in-netherlands-squad-for-world-cup-frimpong-left-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/17389\/","title":{"rendered":"Depay in Netherlands squad for World Cup, Frimpong left out"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZEIST, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Netherlands top scorer Memphis Depay recovered from injury just in time for coach Ronald Koeman to include him in his 26-man squad for the World Cup<\/a> next month. <\/p>\n

Depay was one of three players who have recently returned from injury to be selected Wednesday by Koeman. That was despite his limited playing time leading into soccer\u2019s global showcase being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

Depay, the Netherlands\u2019 all-time leading scorer with 55 goals, on Sunday made his first appearance in several weeks for his Brazilian club Corinthians after recovering from a thigh injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have preferred … it happened earlier,\u201d Koeman said, adding he\u2019d have to \u201cwait and see\u201d just how fit Depay is.<\/p>\n

If Depay struggles for fitness, Koeman also has in-form Roma forward Donyell Malen.<\/p>\n

Justin Kluivert, the son of Dutch great Patrick Kluivert<\/a>, has also just returned to fitness after surgery to repair a knee injury<\/a> and was picked along with defender Jurrien Timber, fresh from winning the Premier League with Arsenal, but also only recently returned to fitness. Timber\u2019s brother Quinten also was named in the squad.<\/p>\n

Koeman called up one debutant \u2014 West Ham winger Crysencio Summerville \u2014 and surprisingly left out Liverpool wingback Jeremie Frimpong, saying he often struggles with injuries.<\/p>\n

Asked about his qualities, Koeman said Summerville has \u201cspeed, action, his play without the ball in defense. Very trustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midfielder Xavi Simons<\/a> was ruled out of the tournament in April after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in a match for Tottenham against Wolverhampton and defensive stalwarts Stefan de Vrij and Matthijs de Ligt are also missing through injury.<\/p>\n

In a bubble<\/p>\n

The Netherlands is a three-time World Cup finalist but has never won international soccer\u2019s greatest prize. It lost in 1974 to then West Germany, in 1978 to host Argentina and to Spain in 2010 when Andres Iniesta scored a goal late in extra time.<\/p>\n

Koeman was realistic about his seventh-ranked team\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we\u2019re competing to win, but I\u2019m well aware of the reality and what other countries can bring. So, yeah, nothing is impossible, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going for,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m convinced that we can go far and that we have a team that is hard to beat. But to win a few matches against big countries, that is still a long way off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koeman said he was going to stop reading media and social media as his team prepares and throughout the tournament. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou are in a bubble, focused on performance … everything else that comes from outside is a distraction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And Koeman doesn\u2019t want to get involved in activities outside his team\u2019s media commitments at the tournament \u2014 regardless of who is asking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that I\u2019m going to a photo opportunity with the team because (US President Donald) Trump, (FIFA President Gianni) Infantino want us to stand in front of a church or some water for a picture,\u201d he said. \u201cNo, that\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koeman captained the Netherlands when the United States last hosted the World Cup in 1994 when the Dutch lost 3-2 to eventual champion Brazil in the quarterfinals. He also was in the team when the Netherlands won its only major international title, the 1988 European Championship.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands opens its Group F campaign in Dallas against Japan before taking on Sweden and finally Tunisia.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Squad: <\/p>\n

Goalkeepers: Mark Flekken (Bayer Leverkusen), Robin Roefs (Sunderland), Bart Verbruggen (Brighton).<\/p>\n

Defenders: Nathan Ak\u00e9 (Manchester City), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan), Jorrel Hato (Chelsea), Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton), Micky van de Ven (Tottenham), Jurrien Timber (Arsenal).<\/p>\n

Midfielders: Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool), Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona), Teun Koopmeiners (Juventus), Tijjani Reijnders (Manchester City), Marten de Roon (Atalanta), Guus Til (PSV Eindhoven), Quinten Timber (Marseille), Mats Wieffer (Brighton).<\/p>\n

Forwards: Brian Brobbey (Sunderland), Memphis Depay (Corinthians), Cody Gakpo (Liverpool), Justin Kluivert (Bournemouth), Noa Lang (Galatasaray), Donyell Malen (Roma), Crysencio Summerville (West Ham), Wout Weghorst (Ajax).<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZEIST, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Netherlands top scorer Memphis Depay recovered from injury just in time for coach Ronald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[362,13763,9778,5741,13481,13774,13761,8688,2860,13284,13775,274,13760,365,2420,13253,13773,13282,360,391,4508,13768,13764,10010,4164,174,13765,13769,6,363,368,13766,13771,367,13767,364,366,13770,13762,13772,2857,13287,5466],"class_list":["post-17389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-afc-bournemouth","tag-andres-iniesta","tag-arsenal-fc","tag-athlete-injuries","tag-bart-verbruggen","tag-brian-brobbey","tag-brighton-and-hove-albion-fc","tag-central-america","tag-cody-gakpo","tag-crysencio-summerville","tag-denzel-dumfries","tag-donald-trump","tag-donyell-malen","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-frenkie-de-jong","tag-inter-milan","tag-jan-paul-van-hecke","tag-jeremie-frimpong","tag-justin-kluivert","tag-latin-america","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-mark-flekken","tag-marten-de-roon","tag-matthijs-de-ligt","tag-memphis-depay","tag-mexico","tag-micky-van-de-ven","tag-nathan-ak","tag-netherlands","tag-netherlands-national-soccer-team","tag-patrick-kluivert","tag-quinten-jurrien-timber","tag-robin-roefs","tag-ronald-koeman","tag-ryan-gravenberg","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-stefan-de-vrij","tag-sunderland-afc","tag-teun-koopmeiners","tag-virgil-van-dijk","tag-west-ham-united-fc","tag-xavi-simons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}