Veteran football coach Dick Advocaat has joined Feyenoord as an adviser until the end of the season to support under-fire coach Robin van Persie.
The 78-year-old returned to the Netherlands last month after quitting as Curaçao’s national team coach to be closer to his daughter, who is seriously ill, having guided the Caribbean nation to the World Cup finals for the first time.
Van Persie has come under increasing pressure in his first full season as Feyenoord coach because of the team’s patchy form and poor performance in the Europa League, where they lost six of their eight group stage matches.
The Rotterdam club are 16 points behind league leaders PSV Eindhoven, who could sew up the title if Feyenoord lose the weekend Klassieker against Ajax on Sunday.
However, they remain three points clear ahead of NEC Nijmegen and five ahead of Ajax in the race to clinch the crucial second Champions League spot with seven matches left to play. Last week the board gave Van Persie their backing until the end of the season.
Van Persie began his coaching career in an unofficial capacity under Advocaat during the 2020 season, before taking an official position coaching the under-16 team in 2021.
Reprising earlier role
“I’ve known Robin for nearly 20 years and we have always had a good rapport,” Advocaat said in a statement on Feyenoord’s website. “When I was coach here he always wanted to share his knowledge as a top striker with the forwards we had at Feyenoord. Now I can support him in turn and I’m happy to do so.”
Feyenoord will hope Advocaat’s involvement will take the pressure off Van Persie’s shoulders and allow the former Netherlands, Arsenal and Manchester United striker to concentrate on coaching the first team.
Advocaat will not have a formal position at the club, but act as a mentor behind the scenes, just as he did 10 years ago when Feyenoord were struggling under another inexperienced coach, Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
Having lost seven matches in a row in the middle of the 2015/16 season, Feyenoord recovered to finish third and win the KNVB Cup. The following year Van Bronckhorst led the club to its first league title on 18 years.
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