The Netherlands National Soccer Team named Xavi Hernandez as their new head coach. Hernandez, a native of Terrassa, Spain, is the first international soccer coach of the Netherlands since Ernst Happel of Vienna, Austria in 1978.
The Netherlands were in need of a new head coach. That is because Ronald Koeman of Zaandam, Netherlands agreed to step down as the national men’s soccer team’s head coach following the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America. The Netherlands reached the round of 32 before losing to Morocco on penalty kicks in Mexico.
Hernandez has prior coaching experience at the club level. He was with Al Sadd in Qatar from 2019 to 2021, and then was given a high profile assignment with FC Barcelona from 2021 to 2024.
It should be noted that Hernandez has not been coaching soccer since being fired by FC Barcelona on May 24, 2024. Hernandez’s new contract with the Netherlands’s National Team will be four years, with the 2030 FIFA World Cup in Morocco, Portugal and Spain as the main focus. It is interesting that Hernandez is from Spain and that Morocco was the team that eliminated the Netherlands from the last World Cup.
Hernandez was a midfielder who also played with FC Barcelona and Al Sadd (the two teams he went on to manage). He scored 78 goals in 587 games.
At the international level, Hernandez had 13 goals for the Spanish National Team from 2005 to 2013. He was part of the Spanish team that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
