{"id":22513,"date":"2026-06-15T08:23:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/22513\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T08:23:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:23:05","slug":"how-dick-advocaat-carried-curacao-to-the-fifa-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/22513\/","title":{"rendered":"How Dick Advocaat carried Cura\u00e7ao to the FIFA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Delhi: Germany thrashed Cura\u00e7ao 7-1 in the opening fixture of Group E in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. While the result did not come as a surprise to the world, the only goal from the island nation created history. Livano Comenencia\u2019s strike at the 21st minute briefly levelled the fixture, but the architect behind this success was in the dugout. He is the Dutch football coach Dick Advocaat.<\/p>\n

At 78, he became the oldest manager<\/a> ever to grace the FIFA World Cup, leading the smallest nation with a population of 1,50,000 and a land area of only 444 square kilometres to qualify for football\u2019s biggest tournament. For Advocaat, who has had a managerial career across Europe, Asia and the Middle East for nearly four decades, guiding Cura\u00e7ao to the World Cup must be the best chapter in his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this could be summed up from his tears just before the kick-off against Germany. Ahead of the clash, Advocaat said, \u201cWe are a small country compared to Germany, \u200bbut we will make life difficult for them and be \u2060a tough team to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tShow Full Article<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWho is Dick Advocaat?<\/p>\n

Born on 27 September 1947 in The Hague, Netherlands, Advocaat played as a midfielder for clubs like ADO Den Haag and Bern in Switzerland. He was never one of the top players. Instead, he took his venture in coaching and managing teams, which had started in the 1980s. He has found success with teams like the Netherlands, Rangers, PSV Eindhoven, Zenit Saint Petersburg, South Korea, Russia, Belgium and Serbia.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed the \u201cLittle General\u201d for his approach to the game, he has won league titles, domestic cups and even the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) with Zenit in 2008.<\/p>\n

Advocaat had retired several times. And, he did make a comeback an equal number of times. In 2021, he retired from Feyenoord after a two-year stint at the Dutch club. But football kept pulling him back. And this time, it was Cura\u00e7ao.<\/p>\n

He again left football for family problems. Earlier this year, he stepped away from the national team after his daughter faced health issues. It looked like the very coach who had helped the island nation reach the World Cup would not be a part of that very tournament.<\/p>\n

But fate had other things in store for him. Advocaat returned to the dugout ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He was welcomed by players and fans.<\/p>\n

Also read: Qatar goalkeeper Abunada defies Switzerland 3 points at World Cup. Head injury sparks outrage<\/a><\/p>\n

Advocaat\u2019s contribution to Cura\u00e7ao<\/p>\n

In 2024, Advocaat took charge of the Cura\u00e7ao football team. He convinced several dual-nationality players that Cura\u00e7ao\u2019s project was worth investing in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cura\u00e7ao relies heavily on the Dutch diaspora, as nearly all of the national team\u2019s regular players are born, raised, or playing professionally in the Netherlands. Cura\u00e7ao is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and players holding Dutch passports can choose to represent Cura\u00e7ao if they have parental or grandparental heritage linking them to the island.<\/p>\n

Cura\u00e7ao navigated through the CONCACAF qualifying rounds and secured its first-ever FIFA World Cup berth. Advocaat\u2019s challenge was that the island nation did not have a massive football infrastructure, no big-money league, and players who mostly represent mid-table European clubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A goal against Germany at the World Cup announced Cura\u00e7ao\u2019s arrival at the international level. And the man in the dugout, wiping tears before kick-off, had everything to do with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi: Germany thrashed Cura\u00e7ao 7-1 in the opening fixture of Group E in the 2026 FIFA World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5750,5173,5634,1105,42],"class_list":["post-22513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-hague","tag-curacao","tag-dick-advocaat","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-germany","tag-the-hague"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22513","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=22513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}