Bert Van Marwijk was born in Deventer in the Netherlands. As a forward and a midfielder, he played 393 matches in the highest Dutch division, the Eredivisie. He began his career at Go Ahead Eagles, his hometown club. After six seasons, he left Deventer to play in Alkmaar with AZ. In 1978, he moved to MVV Maastricht, where he spent eight seasons before a single season with Fortuna Sittard. He ended his playing career in 1988 after one season for the Belgian Football Club Assent having played 468 matches and scoring 72 goals at senior level. In 1975, Rinus Michels called upon van Marwijk to play for the Dutch national team in a friendly match against Yugoslavia, his only cap.
Van Marwijk began his professional managerial career at his former club Fortuna Sittard. They finished seventh in the Eredivisie in 1998 but reached the KNVB Cup final in 1999. Fortuna had players like Mark van Bommel and Wilfred Bouma in the squad at the time.
In 2000, he became the manager of Rotterdam-based club Feyenoord. In his first season, he led the team to a second-place finish in the Eredivisie and his second season (2001—02), he had one of his career’s biggest successes.
After beating SC Freiburg, PSV and Inter Milan in the knockout stage, he won the UEFA Cup final after beating Borussia Dortmund in the final, 3—2. Feyenoord placed third in the league alongside van Marwijk in the 2002, 03 and 04 seasons. In July 2004, he began managing German Bundesliga club, Borussia Dortmund.
In both of his first two seasons with Dortmund (2004-05 and 2005-06), BVB finished seventh in the Bundesliga table. During the third, Dortmund was stagnating, and situated mid-table in ninth. Van Marwijk and the club announced that they would part ways at the end of the 06-07 season. However, on December 18, they parted prematurely.
Van Marwijk’s return to Feyenoord would be short-lived; before the end of the 2007-8 season, van Marwijk succeeded Marco van Basten as head coach of the Dutch national team after Uefa Euro 2008.
Van Marwijk’s management staff included former internationals Frank de Boer and Philip Cocu. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he led the Dutch to the final against Spain after defeating Slovakia in the round of 16, Brazil in the quarter-finals and Uruguay in the semi-finals. They lost, however, 1—0 in extra time. He opted for a tough style of play, especially in opposition to Spain, a strong contrast with the Dutch football tradition.
On December 8 2011, van Marwijk extended his contract with the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) for four more years through to the summer of 2016, including participation in the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016 tournaments. However, at the Euro 2012 tournament, the Dutch ended up without a single point; heavy criticism prompted van Marwijk to resign on June 27th.
In September 2013, van Marwijk became the head coach of German side Hamburger SV after refusing offers from English side Southampton and Portugal’s Sporting CP. On February 8, Hamburg lost their sixth consecutive league match and gave up three goals in their fifth-straight league match. The supervisory board at Hamburg met on 9 February 2014 to discuss the future of van Marwijk, opting to let him continue in his role. However, he was sacked on February 15 after Hamburg lost 4—2 to Eintracht Braunschweig.
On August 26, 2015, van Marwijk became the Saudi Arabia national team’s new manager on a one-year contract. On September 3, 2015, he won his first game, 7—0, against East Timor at the 2018 Asian World Cup Qualifiers. On March 24, 2016, he clinched qualification to the third (final) round by winning 2—0 against Malaysia. After criticism from local media for not staying in the country and watching league games, van Marwijk helped Saudi Arabia directly qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in their last match against Japan. Saudi Arabia qualified for their fifth FIFA World Cup and first since Germany 2006. After their final qualifying match, van Marwijk left the position unable to agree on a new contract with the Saudi Arabia football federation.
On January 24, 2018, van Marwijk was appointed head coach of the Australia national football team, but Australian coach Graham Arnold replaced him in March 2018.
On March 20, 2019, van Marwijk became the new manager of the UAE team. In December 2019, UAE Football Association and van Marwijk ended their cooperation following the UAE’s 4-2 defeat to Qatar in the Arabian Gulf Cup before being reappointed as head-coach in December 2020.

Ben McFadyean, Special to Gulf News

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