Dick Advocaat Returns as Curaçao Coach for 2026 World Cup
With just 28 days remaining until the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 78-year-old Dick Advocaat has returned as the head coach of the Curaçao national team. Advocaat had previously resigned in February to care for his ailing daughter, shortly after guiding the Caribbean nation to its historic first World Cup qualification. His interim replacement, Fred Rutten, stepped down following poor results in March friendlies against Australia and China. The Curaçao Football Federation confirmed Advocaat's return five weeks before the tournament begins. Upon leading the team in their opening match against Germany, Advocaat will set a new record as the oldest manager in World Cup history, surpassing Otto Rehhagel’s previous record. Curaçao is drawn in Group E alongside Germany, Ecuador, and Ivory Coast. This appointment marks another chapter in Advocaat’s extensive international coaching career, which includes tenures with the Netherlands, South Korea, Russia, and other nations. The news highlights the dramatic final preparations for the smallest nation ever to qualify for the expanded World Cup tournament.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection