AMSTERDAM, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The appointment of Xavi as Netherlands coach late on Wednesday completes an extensive search and brings full circle the special relationship between Dutch football and Barcelona.
Xavi replaces Ronald Koeman, who quit after the Netherlands were eliminated from the World Cup in the round of 32 in June.
A World Cup winner with Spain as a player in 2010, Xavi has been out of coaching since leaving Barcelona in 2024, where he spent three seasons in charge.
He has signed a four-year contract through the 2030 World Cup and is the first foreign coach to take charge of the Dutch since Austrian Ernst Happel at the 1978 World Cup.
The six-week wait for a coach drew criticism from Dutch media, but the country’s football association received several rejections, including from Arne Slot and Erik ten Hag, before turning to the former Barcelona playmaker.
Xavi had also succeeded Koeman at Camp Nou in November 2021 and coached Barcelona to the La Liga title in 2023 before leaving after a run of poor results a year later.
Barcelona’s football philosophy of dominant possession, short passing and quick ball recovery was introduced with the arrival of Rinus Michels as coach and Johan Cruyff as a player, the pair bringing ‘Total Football’, a philosophy honed at Ajax Amsterdam in the early 1970s.
Cruyff, who later coached Barcelona, was a major influence on subsequent coaches, particularly Pep Guardiola, who had Xavi as one of his key players during his time in charge from 2008 to 2012.
“As someone who received his training at the Barcelona academy, with strong influences from Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels, among others, I feel a special connection to Dutch football,” Xavi said in a statement on Wednesday.
“You could say that I am a bit of a son of Dutch football. I consider it a tremendous honour to become the national coach of the Dutch national team.”
Xavi also played under Frank Rijkaard and Louis van Gaal, who gave him his Barcelona debut in 1998, and had as his teammates a myriad of Dutch internationals, including Frank and Ronald de Boer, Marc Overmars and Patrick Kluivert.
His most pressing tasks include building towards the European Championship in 2028 and the World Cup two years later.
The Netherlands also play four Nations League matches in quick succession in the September-October international window against Germany, Serbia (twice) and Greece.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Durban; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
