Former Barcelona manager, Xavi Hernández, has agreed to take charge of the Netherlands national team, replacing Ronald Koeman and signing a contract that will run through the 2030 World Cup.
The appointment was confirmed on Wednesday, bringing Xavi back to the touchline for the first time since leaving Barcelona in 2024.
There is an interesting twist to the appointment. Xavi is replacing Koeman again.
The Spaniard took over from the Dutchman at Barcelona in 2021, and five years later, the same change has happened at international level. This time, however, Xavi is stepping into a completely different environment, where he will have far less time with his players and much more pressure to get his ideas across quickly.
The choice also makes sense from a footballing point of view.
Xavi’s approach has always been heavily influenced by the possession-based game associated with Dutch football. His ideas were shaped in part by Johan Cruyff, while his playing career also brought him under the influence of Dutch football figures at Barcelona.
Now, he gets the chance to bring those ideas to the country that helped shape them.
That will be one of the biggest attractions of the appointment, but it could also become one of Xavi’s biggest tests.
The Netherlands have quality across the squad and have consistently produced technically gifted players. What they have lacked is the major international trophy they have been chasing for generations. They have reached three World Cup finals without winning one, while their last major international title remains the 1988 European Championship.
Xavi will therefore not be arriving simply to make the Oranje play attractive football.
He will be expected to win.
His own record will also come under scrutiny. Xavi enjoyed success at Barcelona, winning LaLiga and the Spanish Super Cup in the 2022/23 season, but his time at the club was also marked by inconsistency and mounting pressure before his departure in 2024.
The Netherlands job gives him an opportunity to change that conversation.
It is also a historic appointment. Xavi becomes the first foreign coach to lead the Dutch men’s national team since Austria’s Ernst Happel in 1978.
His first major task will be to build a team capable of competing with Europe’s best while introducing his own ideas without disrupting what already works.
And unlike at Barcelona, Xavi will not have weeks of daily training to work on every detail.