WILLEMSTAD, Cura莽ao (AP) 鈥� has resigned as Cura莽ao head coach due to his daughter鈥檚 health issues and won’t lead the team at the World Cup.
The 78-year-old Dutchman was set to lead the Caribbean country into an opener against four-time champion Germany in June.
鈥淚鈥檝e always said that family comes before football,鈥� Advocaat said in a statement released Monday by the country’s soccer federation. 鈥淭his is therefore a natural decision. But that doesn鈥檛 change the fact that I will miss Cura莽ao, the people there, and my colleagues very much.鈥�
鈥淚 consider qualifying the smallest country in the world for the World Cup one of the highlights of my career,鈥� he added. 鈥淚鈥檓 proud of my players, staff, and the board members who believed in us.鈥�
Fred Rutten has been appointed as his successor, the federation said. He previously coached FC Twente, PSV, Feyenoord and Schalke 04.
Cura莽ao will go to the World Cup as the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the marquee event in men鈥檚 soccer.
Cura莽ao, an autonomous territory of about 156,000 people within the Netherlands kingdom, took the record of which was the previous smallest country to reach the World Cup when it qualified for Russia 2018.
The team is relying heavily on players born and raised in the Netherlands. Cura莽ao has actively recruited from its diaspora, getting permission from FIFA within world soccer鈥檚 rules to change the national-team eligibility of players who once represented the Netherlands at youth or Under-21 level, including five since August.
Advocaat took his native Netherlands to the quarterfinals at the 1994 World Cup and coached South Korea at the 2006 tournament in Germany.
___
AP soccer:
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
