Koeman equals Van Gaal: post-war record national coach with 63 international matches

Ronald Koeman writes history again with the Dutch team. Against Tunisia, the national coach has 63 international matches and equals Louis van Gaal as the post-war record national coach of the Netherlands. For the butcher's son from Zaanstad, who once called his ambition to become a trainer "a twist in my head", it is a new milestone in a career full of peaks and valleys.

Few have served as many greats as Koeman. As a player he worked with Johan Cruijff, Guus Hiddink, Rinus Michels, Leo Beenhakker, Dick Advocaat, Aad de Mos, Willem van Hanegem, Arie Haan and Louis van Gaal. He mixed these influences into his own recipe: the realism of Hiddink and the authority of Michels, supplemented with the ambition and swagger that have characterized him from his first steps as a coach.


Since the start of this century, Koeman's coaching career started in fits and starts. Spread over two terms, he has now led the Dutch team to a final tournament three times. His total as club and national coach has included nine trophies so far, but also five dismissals - evidence of a career that never strayed past the halfway line.

Koeman will not place himself next to the greatest Dutch coaching icons, but within the group of ex-internationals who graduated in Zeist, he is the most successful. The striver, whose testosterone levels once went through the roof with every passing train, looks calmer after nineteen moves in 43 years — with another record in the orange book.