WILLEMSTAD (DA) — Dick Advocaat is back in charge of Curaçao’s national team before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, adding another sharp turn to a coaching career that has rarely moved in a straight line.
Advocaat stepped down as Curaçao head coach in February. The Curaçao Football Federation (FFK) said he left to give full attention to his daughter’s health. Advocaat called it a “natural decision” and said, “Family comes before football.”
Fred Rutten was appointed as his successor, but the change did not close the book on Advocaat’s role in Curaçao football.
In early March, ESPN analyst Hans Kraay Jr. said on Goedemorgen Eredivisie that Advocaat had not necessarily stopped coaching. “He has not stopped,” Kraay said.
Later that month, Feyenoord announced that Advocaat would support Robin van Persie’s staff in an advisory role until the end of the season. Feyenoord said the role would remain in the background, would not be an official coaching staff position and would not place Advocaat in the dugout during matches.
Then the Curaçao job opened again.
Rutten stepped down as head coach, saying he did not want a climate to develop that could damage healthy professional relationships among players or staff. FFK then moved to bring Advocaat back as national team head coach.
The result is another unexpected twist around one of Dutch football’s most traveled coaches: Advocaat left Curaçao, joined Feyenoord in the background, and returned to Curaçao within the same World Cup year.
The sequence follows several earlier sharp turns in his coaching career.
In 2005, Advocaat left the United Arab Emirates only weeks after taking the job to become South Korea’s national coach ahead of the 2006 World Cup. He had been appointed by the UAE in July 2005 and left in September to take over South Korea.
In 2007, Advocaat backed out of an agreement to coach Australia before the 2010 World Cup qualifiers after receiving a more lucrative offer to stay with Zenit St. Petersburg. Football Federation Australia wanted FIFA to punish him for reneging on the agreement.
In 2010, Advocaat left Belgium after only months in charge and moved to Russia. He quit Belgium after six months and later signed a four-year deal with Russia. Belgian reports said his salary was set to rise from €650,000 per year with Belgium to €4 million with Russia.
Advocaat’s latest return puts him back at the front of Curaçao’s biggest football moment, after a brief period under Rutten and an advisory stop at Feyenoord.
Still, the latest reversal fits a broader career theme: Advocaat’s jobs have not always followed straight lines. From UAE to South Korea, from Australia’s abandoned agreement to Zenit, from Belgium to Russia, and now from Curaçao to Feyenoord and back to Curaçao, the veteran Dutch coach has repeatedly been at the center of sudden football turns.