Dick Advocaat is back in Scotland with Curaçao, and he is back at Hampden Park with a team that has never had a World Cup stage this big. The 78-year-old arrived in Glasgow on Friday before a friendly against Scotland, a match that brings him face to face with a place he once knew at the height of his Rangers years.
He did not sound like a man making a ceremonial visit. Advocaat said he was successful in this stadium and reminded reporters that, 27 years earlier to the day, he watched his Rangers side complete a domestic treble there. That memory mattered because this trip is tied to something much larger: Curaçao will become his World Cup team in 2026, and when they face Germany on 14 June he will become the oldest coach in World Cup history.
For Scotland, the fixture is a friendly. For Advocaat, it is a return to a ground that still carries his name in his own mind, and a chance to measure a side ranked 82nd in the world against a team he described as having better players. He said he did not expect to be playing Scotland with Curaçao, calling it a surprise, but he also made clear why he wanted the match: when he was at the World Cup draw in December, he pushed Steve Clarke hard to make it happen.
The timing gives the meeting extra edge. Clarke signed a contract this week that will keep him in charge of Scotland until the 2030 World Cup, while Advocaat came back to the dugout this month after resigning in February because of a family health matter he said he was unwilling to discuss. He was blunt about the reason he stepped away, saying something happened at home that forced him to stop, but he was just as direct about what brought him back.
At 78, he said he does not feel his age. He also said he expects to stop after the World Cup, though he admitted he keeps getting phone calls that make it hard to refuse work. That is the contradiction hanging over this final stretch: the man who says he will normally walk away is also the man clubs and countries still call first when they want experience, composure and a name that still carries weight.
Curaçao’s World Cup place is the reason this journey matters now. Advocaat said he was the coach who qualified the team, and he pointed to the fact that the side had already met one of its main targets by reaching the Gold Cup a year earlier. He called them hard-working and said they are paid amateurs, which gives the run to the tournament a different feel from the powerhouses waiting in North America.
What comes next is simple on paper and uncertain in practice. Curaçao will take on Scotland first, then turn toward Germany on 14 June, with Advocaat trying to manage a team that is not among the favourites but has already reached a place few expected it to go. Whether he truly ends here, or whether another phone call changes his mind again, is the question that will follow him out of Glasgow and into the World Cup.
