{"id":591349,"date":"2026-08-12T21:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/591349\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:56:09","slug":"xavi-becomes-first-non-dutch-netherlands-coach-since-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/591349\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavi becomes first non-Dutch Netherlands coach since 1978"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Barcelona manager Xavi has been appointed the new head coach of the Netherlands on a four-year deal.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old, who played for Barcelona and Spain, will become the first non-Dutch coach to take charge of the Netherlands since Austrian coach Ernst Happel stepped down in 1978.<\/p>\n

Ronald Koeman resigned as Netherlands manager<\/a> following a last-32 defeat by Morocco at this summer’s World Cup.<\/p>\n

“I consider it a tremendous honour to become head coach of the Dutch national team,” Xavi said.<\/p>\n

“As someone who received his training at Barca’s academy, with strong influences from Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels, among others, I feel a special connection to Dutch football.<\/p>\n

“You could say that I am partly a son of Dutch football. Other great coaches, especially Louis van Gaal, under whom I made my debut at Barca, and Frank Rijkaard, also played an important role in shaping me as a player and coach.”<\/p>\n

Xavi will begin his Netherland’s reign against Jurgen Klopp’s Germany<\/a> on 24 September in the Nations League.<\/p>\n

Former Liverpool head coach Arne Slot confirmed he held talks over the job<\/a> but withdrew because he wants his next role to be in club football.<\/p>\n

Xavi, who won three international trophies, was part of the Spain team that beat the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup final.<\/p>\n

He retired in 2019 and went into management with Al-Sadd before taking over at Barca in November 2021, where he won a La Liga title in his first full season in charge.<\/p>\n

It will be Xavi’s first managerial job since he stepped down from Barcelona in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Barcelona manager Xavi has been appointed the new head coach of the Netherlands on a four-year deal.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-591349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}