According to reports, Ronald Koeman would replace Louis van Gaal as coach of the Netherlands after the World Cup.
After Van Gaal confirmed he is battling prostate cancer, the former Barcelona and Everton manager will take over from his fellow Dutchman after the Qatar tournament is done. According to De Telegraaf, Koeman will take over as coach of the Netherlands for the second time on January 1.
Koeman, 59, was the captain of the Netherlands from 2018 to 2020 before returning to Barcelona, the club he notably represented during his playing days. At the Nou Camp, though, things did not go as planned.
Last season, the Catalan giants had a dreadful season, finishing seven points behind La Liga champions Atletico Madrid and exiting the Champions League in the last-16. And things didn’t get off to a good start this time, with club legend Lionel Messi choosing Paris Saint-Germain due to Barcelona’s dire financial situation.
Things did not improve on the pitch either. After a poor start to the season, both at home and in Europe, Koeman was fired in October and replaced by Xavi, a Barcelona great.
Van Gaal opened up about his prostate cancer diagnosis on Dutch TV show Humberto on Sunday evening. He said: “I think you don’t tell people you work with like that because it might influence their choices, their decisiveness. So I thought they shouldn’t know.
“In each period during my time as manager of the National Team I had to leave in the night to go to the hospital without the players finding it out until now. While thinking I was healthy. But, I am not.
“You don’t die from prostate cancer, at least not in 90 per cent of the cases. It is usually other underlying diseases that kill you. But I had a pretty aggressive form.”
Upon hearing the news, Liverpool and Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk said the team wanted to give Van Gaal a tournament he “would never forget.”
He said: “I told him as well that we are definitely going to be there for him as a group whenever he needs it – and hopefully we can also make it, for him, a World Cup to never forget.”