The first steps of Ronald Koeman as manager of the Netherlands
After having participated in two consecutive semifinals of the FIFA World Cup (South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014) and being in the podium in both occasions, the Dutch selection could not classify for the UEFA Euro 2016 and could not make it either to the FIFA World Cup that is going to take place in Russia this year of 2018. Undoubtedly this is a serious descent for a country with tradition of achieving good results in soccer’s maximum event.
Taking into account these results, changes had to be made in the team that, for the last year, had been managed by Dick Advocaat, who got a really battered team after being three seasons with Guus Hiddink and Danny Blind in command. Wouter Gudde, General Manager of the team, decided to put his trust in the former star defender Ronald Koeman, who, at his 54 years old, has 15 years of experience being the manager of different teams all over Europe (England, Portugal, Spain and Holland). However, he is facing now a much more superior challenge because he will have to change the minds of fans all over the country, where the support and trust for the team have diminished over the last years.
Koeman is very much remembered by his career as a player, in which he won for four times the Eredivisie with the Ajax and the PSV Eindhoven and was part of FC Barcelona’s Dream Team that ruled Spain’s soccer in the early nineties. It was precisely with the Catalonians that he became the hero of the club, when he scored with a free kick the only goal of the European Cup Final against Sampdoria at Wembley Stadium to make the FC Barcelona European Champion for the first time in its history. Not so long after his retirement from active soccer, he began to introduce himself in the management of teams and he had great teachers because he was the assistant of Guus Hiddink in the Dutch selection and also of Louis Van Gaal in the FC Barcelona before he was named manager of the Vitesse Arnhem.
After these initial chapters he worked with the Ajax, the Benfica, the PSV Eindhoven, the Valencia C.F, the AZ Alkmaar, the Feyenoord Rotterdam, Southampton F.C and Everton F.C, obtaining his most relevant results with his country, where he got three titles of the Eredivisie. Koeman is also remembered because of his turbulent times with the Valencia C.F almost a decade ago. He arrived to the team in substitution of Quique Sanchez Flores, after Oscar Fernandez transition, and with him the team touched rocked bottom in the League but they got an unthinkable title in the Copa del Rey against the Getafe. Koeman put aside some legends of the Valencia C.F like Albelda, Canizares and Angulo and he was not popular among the players, that is why he did not conclude the Championship with them and they were saved at the end by Salvador Gonzalez Marco, Voro.
The level of exigency is much bigger now, mostly because of what the team from the Netherlands is currently facing. Besides the fact that they could not make it to the bigger tournaments, they are also on the brink of having their star figures retired. That is the case of Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder. There are also emerging stars that have not progressed as they expected them to do, like Memphis Depay. In his first game as manager he lost 0-1 against England but after that he won Portugal, the current European Champion and one of the teams to watch in Russia 2018, 3-0. This victory could be a starting point for the team in its race towards the UEFA Euro 2020 and the UEFA Nations League, a tournament that will take place for the first time next September and in which the Dutch will have to face in its pool the always complicated teams of Germany and France.
