Patrick Kluivert: Indonesia name Dutch legend as head coach
Indonesia has appointed former Netherlands and Barcelona striker Patrick Kluivert as head coach.
The 48-year-old succeeds South Korea coach Shin Tae-yong and hopes to qualify his new side for the 2026 World Cup, which will be expanded to 48 teams.
Kluivert, who won the Champions League with Ajax and played in the Premier League for Newcastle, signed a two-year contract with the option to extend.
The Southeast Asian country has qualified for the tournament only once before, in 1938 when they were the Dutch East Indies.
The Dutch’s first task is to play Australia in the third round of qualifying in March, with two countries in the six-team group automatically qualifying for the World Cup and the other two advancing to the next round.
The Indonesian team is ranked 127th in the FIFA rankings and is third in the group with six games out of 10.
Kluivert last coached a team in 2023, when he coached Turkish team Adana Demirspor for five months.
He has previously coached Curacao twice and assisted Louis van Gaal and Clarence Seedorf when they led the Netherlands and Cameroon national teams respectively.
