Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdɪk ɑtfoːˈkaːt] ; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player who is the manager of the Curaçao national team. A successful player and manager, he is nicknamed "The Little General", a reference to his mentor Rinus Michels.
Advocaat has coached a number of clubs in the Netherlands and abroad (including the Russian club Zenit Saint Petersburg, with which he won the 2008 UEFA Cup and the 2008 UEFA Super Cup), as well as the national teams of a number of countries (including the Netherlands, South Korea, Belgium and Russia). With the Netherlands, he reached the quarterfinals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup and the semifinals of the 2004 UEFA European Championship.
Advocaat was born in The Hague and was a defensive midfielder during his playing days. His career began as an 18-year-old with Hague club ADO Den Haag, and he made his professional debut with the club on 21 May 1967 in a 3–0 win against GVAV. He only featured for Den Haag once more that season, and that summer, the San Francisco Golden Gate Gales franchise imported the Den Haag team, which included Advocaat, to play for six weeks in the United Soccer Association as part of an effort to make the sport more popular in the United States. It was the following season that Advocaat won his only honour as a player, the KNVB Cup, in 1968. In the 1969–70 season, he became a regular in the side, making 29 appearances and scoring his first goal for the club. He made 33 appearances the season after that. From the 1971–72, the club merged with Holland Sport to become FC Den Haag. That season, his final one for the club, Advocaat made a further 66 appearances and scored 6 goals. In total, he made 147 appearances and scored 7 goals for the club.
From 1973, Advocaat's playing career continued for Roda JC until he moved to VVV during the 1976–77 season. With Roda JC, Advocaat made 121 total appearances and scored 2 goals. When the club was to be discontinued in 2009, Goal.com described him as their most famous player. In his first season with VVV, Advocaat scored 2 goals in 20 appearances. He made 33 appearances in the 1977–78 season, scoring four goals, and made a further 21 appearances in his final season at the club. In total, he made 74 appearances and scored 6 goals.
In 1978, Advocaat made the move to the United States to play with the Chicago Sting in the North American Soccer League (NASL). That season, he made 24 appearances, scoring two goals. In 1979, he scored three more goals in 28 appearances and for the 1980 season, he scored one further goal from 29 appearances. During the break between the 1979 and 1980 NASL seasons, Advocaat returned to the Netherlands and made 11 appearances, scoring one goal, for his former club, FC Den Haag.
Following the 1980 NASL season, Advocaat moved to Sparta Rotterdam to play the remainder of the 1980–81 season. He spent 18 months at the club, scoring six goals and making 61 appearances. Following that, Advocaat moved to Belgium and played in the second division for K. Berchem Sport. However, he only made ten appearances there before moving back to the Eredivisie to join Utrecht, where he made 39 more appearances before the end of his playing career.
1981–92: Early coaching in the Netherlands
In addition to playing football, Advocaat was a physical education teacher and became involved in coaching in 1981 when his older brother Jaap was offered a job running amateur Saturday football side Door Samenwerking Verkregen Pijnacker (DSVP). Jaap did not take the role but recommended Dick for the job. Advocaat coached this side during the final four years of his playing career with Sparta Rotterdam and Utrecht.
In 1984, Advocaat was unexpectedly appointed as assistant to Netherlands national team head coach Rinus Michels. Advocaat became a protégé of Michels, whose sobriquet was "The General". In reference to this, Advocaat acquired the nickname "The Little General". In 1987, Advocaat became manager of his first professional club, HFC Haarlem, which he led for two years. Haarlem finished in ninth place in the 1987–88 season and tenth place in the 1988–89 season. Haarlem were eliminated in the second round of the KNVB Cup in both seasons.
Advocaat then moved to Schiedamse Voetbal Vereniging (SVV) as manager. At SVV, alongside technical director Wim Jansen, Advocaat led the team to become Eerste Divisie champions in the 1989–90 season to win promotion to the 1990–91 Eredivisie, winning by 15 points. In 1991, SVV merged with neighbouring club Dordrecht '90, which failed to win promotion to the 1991 play-offs. SVV had finished 16th the previous season, but remained in the Eredivisie after winning their relegation play-off. The two teams competed as SVV/Dordrecht '90 during the 1991–92 season, where they finished in 15th place. and became FC Dordrecht the following season, after Advocaat had left. Despite success at both clubs, Advocaat was criticised in his initial coaching years for playing defensive football.
1992–98: Dutch national team and PSV Eindhoven
In 1990, Advocaat once more became an assistant to Michels, who was having his fourth spell as coach of the Dutch national team and looking to qualify for UEFA Euro 1992. At Euro 1992, it became apparent it would be Michels' last job, and following the tournament, Advocaat took over as national coach. Advocaat lost his first two matches in charge, a friendly against Italy and a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Norway. During the qualifying campaign, Advocaat and Ruud Gullit fell out; Gullit was unhappy with Advocaat's tactics in the World Cup qualifier against England and was eventually substituted. Following this, Gullit retired from international football, but was widely expected to return with a change of administration in the summer. Advocaat qualified for the World Cup, following a crucial win against qualification rivals England. Despite the result, Advocaat was scheduled to lose his job to Johan Cruyff for the 1994 World Cup. However, talks between Cruyff and the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) broke down at the last minute and Advocaat retained his position, causing Gullit to remain in retirement although he initially joined the Dutch squad for the 1994 World Cup. In 1993, the Dutch national team had a record of five wins and two draws.
At the World Cup, Advocaat led the Dutch to the quarter-finals, where they lost 3–2 to eventual winners Brazil. Following the World Cup, Advocaat returned to manage at club level. His final match was a 5–0 win against Luxembourg.
Advocaat returned to coaching at club level with PSV on 16 December 1994, taking over from interim manager Kees Rijvers. His first match was 1–0 loss against Ajax on 22 January 1995. PSV finished third that season. Coming to the club, Advocaat coached existing players Ronaldo and Luc Nilis, and in 1995–96, Advocaat's first full season with the club, he led PSV to second place in the Eredivisie. They also won that year's KNVB Cup, which qualified them for the following years UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Over the summer, Advocaat signed Jaap Stam, and in the 1996–97 season, PSV won the Eredivisie title and qualified for the UEFA Champions League the following year. In June 1998, Advocaat left the club. PSV also won the Johan Cruyff Shield, the Dutch Super Cup, in 1996 and 1997.
In 1998, Advocaat accepted the invitation from Rangers chairman David Murray to become the Scottish Premier League (SPL) team's new manager. Walter Smith was still in the job but had announced his departure in advance.
When Advocaat took charge of Rangers, he became the first foreign manager to do so and only the tenth manager in the history of the club. The previous season was the last of seven under Walter Smith, and the first time the club had finished without a trophy in 12 years. Long-term members of the squad that had won nine league championships in a row left, including Ally McCoist, Ian Durrant, Andy Goram and Stuart McCall. With financial backing from chairman David Murray, Advocaat invested heavily in the team. Big money signings such as Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Arthur Numan and Andrei Kanchelskis were among Advocaat's first as Rangers tried to regain the league championship.