{"id":28099,"date":"2026-06-30T22:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/28099\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T22:46:11","slug":"ronald-koeman-quits-as-netherlands-coach-after-disappointing-world-cup-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/28099\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronald Koeman quits as Netherlands coach after disappointing World Cup exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Netherlands <\/a>coach Ronald Koeman<\/a> announced his resignation after the Dutch were eliminated<\/a> from World Cup 2026<\/a> by Morocco <\/a>in the first knockout round in Mexico. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast night, I made the decision to end my tenure as head coach of the Dutch national team,\u201d \u2060Koeman wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all dreamed of a World Cup in which we would make history. That didn\u2019t happen. No one is more disappointed about that than I am. As head coach, you bear that responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RonaldRonald Koeman could only lead the Netherlands to a World Cup exit in the first knockout round (AP)<\/p>\n

Koeman had initially refused to make any definite statement on his \u2060future in the aftermath of the penalty \u200bshootout \u2060defeat in Monterrey but an underwhelming second stint in charge meant it was always likely he would leave amid a barrage of criticism from Dutch \u2060media.<\/p>\n

He also hinted at retirement from coaching: \u201cMoreover, the past few years have made me realise once again that there are more important things than football. Football has been my life, but health is priceless. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone you love dearly is fighting a tough battle, your perspective changes. Despite her own \u200cillness, my wife Bartina supported and encouraged me every \u200cday to finish my work as head coach. That shows incredible strength. I am more grateful to her for that than I could ever put into words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigel de Jong, the Dutch football association\u2019s technical director, described the World Cup campaign as disappointing. He would have had a major say in whether Koeman stayed or not had the coach not quit. <\/p>\n

\"KoemanKoeman and his Dutch side lost on penalties to Morocco (Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective was the semi-finals, and the ambition was to become world champions,\u201d said De Jong. \u201cUnfortunately, we didn\u2019t achieve that. Yes, we are a long way off. That is the conclusion. We have to be honest about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koeman was much criticised after Dutch performances that media critics said \u201cranged from sluggish, aimless passing and retreating against Japan to an energetic response against Sweden and then back to an 80 per cent mentality against Tunisia.\u201d <\/p>\n

Koeman \u200ctook over as coach after the last \u2060World Cup in Qatar four years ago, under Louis van Gaal, where \u2060the Netherlands had made the quarter-finals. <\/p>\n

The Dutch reached the semi-finals of the 2024 Euros but failed \u200cto beat a single country \u200branked in Fifa\u2019s top 25.<\/p>\n

The 63-year-old previously coached the Netherlands from February 2018 before leaving abruptly in August 2020 to take over at Barcelona. <\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16520,16519,5618,15551,16522,16521,6,364,16524,16523,15619,14649,16525],"class_list":["post-28099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-canada2026","tag-canada26","tag-fifa","tag-futbol","tag-mexico2026","tag-mexico26","tag-netherlands","tag-soccer","tag-usa2026","tag-usa26","tag-worldcup","tag-worldcup2026","tag-worldcup26"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28099","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=28099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}