Curacao originally wanted Van Gaal to be the coach, but finally chose Advocaat to help with naturalization.

Hupu reported on November 19 that TheAthleticUK wrote a special column on Curacao.

Curaçao is an island in the Caribbean with a population of only about 155,000. On an exciting night in Jamaica, Curacao qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time, and it seemed as if half the island's residents poured into the stadium to celebrate.

They are now the least populous country in the history of reaching the World Cup, breaking the record set by Iceland in 2018.

To ensure that the players have the support of fans in this decisive qualifying match at the Jamaica National Stadium in Kingston, Curacao chartered two planes to carry their most passionate fans - "extreme fans" as captain Leandro Bacuna calls them.

Among the 35,000 fans in the stadium, the vast majority enthusiastically support the home team, and a sea of ​​yellow surrounds the stadium. The Curacao fans waved flags and shouted loudly, as if forming a small land of rebellion.

Curaçao head coach Dick Advocaat flew back to the Netherlands on Saturday to be with his sick wife. But he watched the games and stayed in contact with the coaching staff, especially No. 2 coach Dean Gore. After the game, he sent a text message to the whole team: "Congratulations! It's great, wonderful, wonderful! What an unforgettable experience!"

For a 78-year-old man who has experienced countless adventures in his career, these words are of great significance, because this will be his third World Cup.

He led the Dutch team to participate in the World Cup held in the United States nearly 32 years ago. In addition, he also coached the South Korean team in the 2006 World Cup and the Russian team in the 2012 European Cup. He has coached in every major competition for the past four decades. Look, his life experience is really colorful.

In fact, the Curacao Football Association considered three Dutch players when selecting their coach.

"I first contacted Dick in August 2023," Martina told The Athletic, "and I laid out my vision to him. He said, 'Gilbert, if we can naturalize those players, we can definitely put together a team that can go to the World Cup.'

Then I asked, 'Can I use your celebrity to attract Sponsors? '

Because you know, big-name coaches attract sponsors and give people hope. That's why I need a big-name coach,

The first one is Bert van Marwijk, who was the head coach of the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup (the Netherlands lost 0-1 to Spain in the final). I coached a lot of these players in the 17-year-old team, but he said: 'Gilbert, I have retired, I want to continue doing my job, so no. '

Then I went to (former Barcelona and Manchester United coach) Louis van Gaal. He said: 'If I go to coach again, it must be to coach a country that has the potential to become a world champion.'

I have to respect his idea, we haven't reached that goal yet.

And what happened? I heard that Curacao is recruiting a head coach. I got goosebumps."

Martina is convinced that Advocaat's enthusiasm for coaching is still there.

"You should see his performance on the court, his energy, passion, and self-discipline."

The relationship between the Netherlands and Curacao can be traced back to the period when Curacao was colonized by the Netherlands in the 17th century. Although Curacao is an independent country today, it remains a constituent island of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Matina took advantage of that to build this team.

Only one person was born in Curacao, and that is former Manchester United youth training player Chen Dayi. The rest of the players are from the Netherlands, but have Curacao ancestry.

"This is really a long journey. This journey began in 2004, when Mr. Jean Francisco, the president of the Football Association, said: 'We have the ability to advance because we have players.'

It was at that time that we began to consider naturalizing overseas players, because before that, we could only rely on those non-professional local players. Since then, we have witnessed the rapid development of the team."

Leandro Bacuna added:

" Our initial idea was to qualify for the World Cup. Because we were Dutch Caribbean, we could pick players from the Netherlands so we could have both Dutch and Irish nationality. We initially recruited players who were not qualified to play for the Dutch national team but could play for Curacao. That's where we started and now everyone sees it as a big deal. So we're really proud of it."