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Guus Hiddink confirmed that he will lead the Russian national team
What has been talked about in football circles for almost two months has come true. 60-year-old Dutchman Guus Hiddink confirmed his upcoming appointment as head coach of the Russian national team. Thus, neither the British nor Inter Milan managed to cross the path of our national team.For the next four years, the Russians will be led by a foreign specialist. Moreover, Hiddink made it clear that he was not going to move to Russia, but would manage a team from Amsterdam, although, according to the coach himself, he had already visited our country and managed to assess the situation.
The idea of inviting a foreign specialist, expressed by RFU President Vitaly Mutko, has been implemented. Moreover, coaching the main team of the country is not entrusted to a craftsman like Wortmann or Bunyak and not to a hero of yesterday like Skala. The Russians managed to get one of the most respected specialists in modern football.
As a player, he was remembered only by specialists and, perhaps, by the fans of De Graafschap from Doetinchem. Hiddink became one of the leading coaches 18 years ago when he led PSV to victory in the Champions Cup. Moreover, a year before its triumph, the club from Eindhoven lost its main star - Ruud Gullit, who was sold to Milan. The new coach of the Russians successfully worked with PSV, then there was the Dutch national team, work in Saudi Arabia and Spain.
Hiddink coached the Dutch team at two major tournaments: the 1996 European Championship, where he was unable to prevent the Orange split between blacks and whites, and the 1998 World Cup, from which the Dutch returned fourth. Then an invitation that you cannot refuse - to Real Madrid. But Gus worked at the Royal club for less than a year. It seemed that the Dutchman's career was going downhill. And then a new appointment - to the South Korean national team. Under Hiddink's leadership, the Koreans rose to the same fourth place as the Dutch four years earlier. Needless to say, in the Land of Morning Freshness, the national team coach was simply showered with gratitude - the citizenship of the country, the new name Hai Dong Du (Happily Rising to the Top), and the stadium named in his honor, and the right to drink beer for free in all restaurants in the country.
After his Korean triumph, Hiddink returned no less triumphantly to Eindhoven, where he managed to breathe new life into PSV. In three years, the Brabant team won the Dutch Championship twice and performed well in Europe. Gus's latest exploits include the Australian national team's participation in the World Cup (after a more than 30-year pause) and the victory in the Dutch championship of PSV, made up of very young football players. Hiddink, like no one else, knows how to work not with star players, but with the players at his disposal, which, of course, was taken into account by the RFU.
In addition to Russia, our group rivals, the British, also laid claim to Hiddink. Even Sven-Eran Eriksson said in a private conversation that he sees the Dutchman as his successor.
We must pay tribute to our football leaders, who managed to beat England even before the start of the qualifying campaign. Apparently, the conditions proposed by the RFU turned out to be more attractive. Surely not the last argument in this fight was Hiddink’s personal communication with Roman Abramovich.
The Dutchman will not combine the posts of coach of the Russian national team and head coach of PSV, this is the condition of the contract. In Eindhoven they are already looking for a replacement. But Hiddink will not move to Russia either. He will come before each training camp for several days, do some work, and then go home to Amsterdam. Hiddink's assistants will most likely also be compatriots, but the option of a mixed coaching staff cannot be ruled out. It’s too early to talk about this, because the Dutchman has no time for the Russian team right now; he is much more concerned about the Australian team, which will very soon compete at the World Championships. By the way, the Australians have already expressed their wish for Hiddink to spend more time with the team.
Will Hiddink be the same miracle worker for the Russians as he was for South Korea and Australia? Will he be able to solve the task assigned to him - to lead the Russian team to the 2008 European Championship? No one can answer this question. Gus will not have time to warm up; the first official match - with Croatia on September 2 - will be decisive for Russia. In practice, our team, under the leadership of the new coach, will play from scratch. There is also a clearly positive factor - the Australians will play against the Croats at the World Cup, and Hiddink will study the “checkered” players thoroughly.
As for our football community, it perceives Hiddink’s arrival very warily, and some experts with irritation. The sharply negative reaction to the appointment of the Dutchman from Valery Gazzaev is well known.