Dick Advocaat poised for World Cup comeback as Curaçao coach

Former Netherlands head coach Dick Advocaat is being tipped to make a comeback with Curaçao, three months after stepping down from the job to deal with a family illness.

The 78-year-old coached the island nation to a first World Cup qualification last year, making it the smallest country ever to qualify for the world’s largest football tournament.

Advocaat quit in February to support to his daughter, who is seriously ill, saying: “I have always said that family comes before football.”

But on Tuesday AD.nl reported that he was being lined up for a return after his successor, Fred Rutten, abruptly resigned at the weekend.

Rutten, the 63-year-old former manager of PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord and Schalke 04, said: “Time is pressing and Curaçao needs to move forward. I regret the way things have played out, but wish everyone all the best.”

Despite Advocaat’s heroic status in Curaçao, his return has caused a rift within the island’s football hierarchy. Rutten was said to have been pushed out after the team’s main sponsor, travel firm Corendon, announced it would pull out after the World Cup unless Advocaat was reinstated.

The chair of the Curaçao football federation, Gilbert Martina, initially stood by Rutten, but after Corendon’s owner Atilay Uslu and the players stepped up the pressure over the weekend Martina told the coach the situation had become untenable, AD.nl reported.

Kees Jansma, the former head of press for the Dutch national team who was hired by Advocaat as his media handler in Curaçao, also resigned in the wake of Rutten’s departure.

Rutten had been due to announce Curaçao’s World Cup squad in Willemstad on Tuesday, but the plane took off from Amsterdam without him. Advocaat said he was “available if Curaçao need a national coach.”

The 78-year-old from The Hague would be the oldest ever coach of a team at the World Cup and the first to manage countries from three continents, having been in charge of the Netherlands and South Korea in previous tournaments.

His long, nomadic career has also seen him take charge of countries such as Russia, Serbia and Iraq, as well as clubs including PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord, Glasgow Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg.

Most recently he has been working as an advisor to Feyenoord coach Robin van Persie. The club has overcame a rocky patch since his arrival at De Kuip to secure a place in next season’s Champions League group stages.