Bert van Marwijk

Bert van Marwijk OON (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɛrt fɑˈmɑrʋɛi̯k], surname isolated: [vɑˈmɑrʋɛi̯k]; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch football manager who is currently the manager of the Saudi Arabia national team. As a footballer, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ, MVV and Fortuna Sittard amongst other clubs, and represented the Netherlands once.
In 1982, Van Marwijk began his transition into a manager, retiring as a player in 1988 and becoming a full-time manager. In 2002, he won the UEFA Cup with Feyenoord. Van Marwijk managed the Netherlands from 2008 until June 2012 and guided the country to the 2010 FIFA World Cup final, which was lost 1–0 in extra-time to Spain. He left this position after the Netherlands lost all of their three matches at UEFA Euro 2012. Van Marwijk is the father-in-law of former Netherlands international Mark van Bommel.

Van Marwijk was born in Deventer, Overijssel. As a forward and a midfielder, he played 393 matches in the Dutch highest division, the Eredivisie. He began his career at Go Ahead Eagles, his hometown club. After six seasons, he left Deventer and started to play in Alkmaar, for AZ. In 1978, he moved to MVV Maastricht, playing there for eight seasons before playing one season for Fortuna Sittard. He ended his playing career in 1988 after playing one season for the Belgium Football Club Assent.
Van Marwijk had opportunities to play for bigger clubs like Feyenoord or West Ham United, but because of injuries he never made a big transfer.

In 1975, Van Marwijk was called up by Rinus Michels to play for the Dutch national team in a friendly match against Yugoslavia, which was his only cap.

Early years

Van Marwijk began his managerial career at his former club Fortuna Sittard. His side finished seventh in the Eredivisie in 1998, and reached the KNVB Cup final in 1999. Fortuna had players like Mark van Bommel, Kevin Hofland and Wilfred Bouma during that period.

Feyenoord

In 2000, Van Marwijk became the manager of Rotterdam-based club Feyenoord. In his first season, he led Feyenoord to a second-place finish in the Eredivisie and in his second season, 2001–02, he had one of the biggest successes of his career. After beating SC Freiburg, Rangers, PSV and Internazionale in the knock-out stage, he won the UEFA Cup final after beating Borussia Dortmund in the final, 3–2. Feyenoord ended in third place in the league with Feyenoord in all of the 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons. In July 2004, he became manager of German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund; he was succeeded at Feyenoord by Ruud Gullit.

Borussia Dortmund

In both of his first two seasons with Dortmund, 2004–05 and 2005–06, Van Marwijk ended seventh in the Bundesliga table. During his third season, his side was stagnating, situated mid-table in ninth, whereupon Van Marwijk and the club announced would part ways at the end of the 2006–07 season. On 18 December, however, Dortmund and Van Marwijk parted company earlier than announced; he was replaced by Jürgen Röber.

Feyenoord

In June 2007, Van Marwijk returned to Feyenoord, also bringing back Feyenoord veteran Giovanni van Bronckhorst from Barcelona. He also brought in Tim de Cler, Kevin Hofland and Roy Makaay, and with this team Feyenoord squad, he won the KNVB Cup in 2008 after beating Roda JC 2–0 in the final.

Netherlands national team

Van Marwijk at Schiphol prior to the Netherlands' run to the final at the 2010 World Cup.

Van Marwijk's return to Feyenoord would be short-lived; before the end of the 2007–08 season, it was announced Van Marwijk would succeed Marco van Basten as head coach of the Dutch national team after UEFA Euro 2008. During his two spells as coach of Feyenoord, five seasons in total, they would finish second once, in 2000–01. Van Marwijk was succeeded at Feyenoord by Gertjan Verbeek.

Van Marwijk's management staff as Dutch coach included former internationals Ernest Faber and Phillip Cocu, as well as Dick Voorn. In the 2010 World Cup, Van Marwijk led the Dutch to the final against Spain after defeating Slovakia in the round of 16, Brazil in the quarter-finals and Uruguay in the semi-finals. They lost, however, 1–0 in extra time. He opted for a very hard style of play, especially during the final, in strong contrast with the Dutch football tradition.

On 8 December 2011, Van Marwijk extended his contract with the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) for four more years through to the summer of 2016, including participation in the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016 tournaments. At the Euro 2012 tournament, however, the Dutch ended up without a single point and being widely criticized, prompting Van Marwijk to resign on 27 June, in fear of falling to Raymond Domenech's step.

Hamburg

On 26 September 2013, Van Marwijk became the head coach of German side Hamburger SV after refusing offers from Southampton and Sporting CP. On 8 February, Hamburg lost for their sixth consecutive league match and gave up three goals in their fifth-straight league match. The supervisory board at Hamburg met on 9 February 2014 to discuss the future of Van Marwijk, opting to let him continue in his role. He was then, however, sacked on 15 February after Hamburg lost 4–2 to Eintracht Braunschweig. Hamburg had lost seven-straight league matches and a DFB-Pokal loss to Bayern Munich. His assistant coach, Roel Coumans, was sacked as well. Van Marwijk lasted 143 days at the helm of Hamburg.

Saudi Arabia

On 26 August 2015, Van Marwijk became the new manager of the Saudi Arabia national team on a one-year contact. On 3 September 2015, he managed his first game, winning 7–0 against East Timor at the 2018 Asian World Cup qualifiers. On 24 March 2016, he clinched qualification to the third (final) round by winning 2–0 against Malaysia. He faced some criticism from fans and media for not living in Saudi Arabia and therefore not attending the local league games.

Player

Manager

As of 14 January 2017

Netherlands matches

  Win   Draw   Loss

Saudi Arabia matches

  Win   Draw   Loss

Player

AZ

• KNVB Cup: 1977–78

MVV Maastricht

• Eerste Divisie: 1983–84

Manager

Van Marwijk won the UEFA Cup (now called the Europa League) with Feyenoord in 2002.

Feyenoord

• KNVB Cup: 2007–08
• UEFA Cup: 2001–02

Netherlands

• FIFA World Cup Runner-up: 2010

Individual

• Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau (2010)
• World Champion klaverjas (1975).

• nusport.nl/recensie | Wereldkampioen Bert van Marwijk