{"id":493998,"date":"2026-02-23T11:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T11:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/493998\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T11:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T11:38:09","slug":"dick-advocaat-quits-as-curacao-coach-over-daughters-health-wont-lead-team-at-the-world-cup-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/493998\/","title":{"rendered":"Dick Advocaat quits as Cura\u00e7ao coach over daughter\u2019s health, won\u2019t lead team at the World Cup \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

WILLEMSTAD, Cura\u00e7ao (AP) \u2014 Dick Advocaat has resigned as Cura\u00e7ao head coach due to his daughter\u2019s health issues and won\u2019t lead the team at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The 78-year-old Dutchman was set to lead the Caribbean country into an opener against four-time champion Germany in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said that family comes before football,\u201d Advocaat said in a statement released Monday by the country\u2019s soccer federation. \u201cThis is therefore a natural decision. But that doesn\u2019t change the fact that I will miss Cura\u00e7ao, the people there, and my colleagues very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"FILE
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – Curacao head coach Dick Advocaat watches from the sideline during the first half of a CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match against El Salvador, on June 17, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. Vasquez, File)<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider qualifying the smallest country in the world for the World Cup one of the highlights of my career,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m proud of my players, staff, and the board members who believed in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fred Rutten has been appointed as his successor, the federation said. He previously coached FC Twente, PSV, Feyenoord and Schalke 04.<\/p>\n

Cura\u00e7ao will go to the World Cup as the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the marquee event in men\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

Cura\u00e7ao, an autonomous territory of about 156,000 people within the Netherlands kingdom, took the record of Iceland, with a population of just over 350,000, which was the previous smallest country to reach the World Cup when it qualified for Russia 2018.<\/p>\n

The team is relying heavily on players born and raised in the Netherlands. Cura\u00e7ao has actively recruited from its diaspora, getting permission from FIFA within world soccer\u2019s rules to change the national-team eligibility of players who once represented the Netherlands at youth or Under-21 level, including five since August.<\/p>\n

Advocaat took his native Netherlands to the quarterfinals at the 1994 World Cup and coached South Korea at the 2006 tournament in Germany.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WILLEMSTAD, Cura\u00e7ao (AP) \u2014 Dick Advocaat has resigned as Cura\u00e7ao head coach due to his daughter\u2019s health issues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-493998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}