Koeman Confirms the Squad

Ronald Koeman named the Netherlands' World Cup squad on May 25, and the selection tells the story of where Dutch football stands: deep talent, real experience at tournament level, and a ceiling that remains defined by how the squad's best players perform under knockout pressure. Van Dijk leads. Gakpo and Simons provide the excitement. De Jong provides the control. And Koeman, who played in the Netherlands side that won Euro 1988, understands exactly what it takes to win a major tournament — and what goes wrong when you don't.

Van Dijk — The Captain and the Rock

Virgil van Dijk is 34 years old and arguably still the best central defender in the world. His Liverpool career has seen highs (the 2019 Champions League) and lows (the 2020-21 ACL injury), but he has come back from everything. For the Netherlands, he is the one irreplaceable player — the captain whose organizational ability and aerial dominance makes the defensive system function. If van Dijk has a bad tournament, the Netherlands concede goals they shouldn't. If he has the tournament of his career, they can go very deep.

Xavi Simons — The Excitement

PSG's 22-year-old midfielder is the Dutch player most likely to do something in this tournament that people remember for decades — a goal from 30 yards, a run from deep that splits two defenders, a pass that nobody else saw. He is technically exceptional, creative in a way that Dutch football has always valued, and at exactly the right age for a major tournament to define his career. Ajax fans who watched him develop will tell you he has always had this quality. The world is about to find out.

The 48-Year Question

The Netherlands have finished runners-up three times (1974, 1978, 2010) without winning the World Cup. They have had three of the best squads in tournament history — Cruyff's total football team, van Basten and Gullit in 1988 (European champions but not World Cup winners), and Robben's team that lost to Spain in the 2010 final. This generation is not as historically significant as those teams. But they are good enough to win a World Cup. Whether they can finally close the tournament out is the question that follows every Dutch squad into every major tournament.