Netherlands have named Andries Jonker as the new Head Coach of their Women’s National Team.
Jonker previously served as interim coach of the women’s national team in 2001 during a gap between his first two managerial jobs at Volendam and Maastricht, with the 59 year-old having since gone on to manage Willem II, Bayern Munich, VFL Wolfsburg and more recently Telstar.
Netherlands’ KNVB have appointed Jonker on a three-year contract as he replaces sacked manager – Mark Parsons – until summer 2025 with him set to leave after UEFA Women’s Euro 2025.
Speaking about the opportunity to manage Netherlands Women, Jonker praised the squad for their “ambitious” and “dedicated” passion to the game as he acknowledged the “incredibly fast” pace that the sport has progressed at in recent years.
With the Netherlands facing a must-win qualifier against Iceland on Tuesday 6 September in order to qualify for 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Jonker addressed the task ahead as he said: “We have ambitious goals, but also a lot of quality and talent that we can draw from towards the 2023 World Cup. It is of course very nice to be able to give direction to that.”
KNVB Director of Women’s Football, Jan Dirk van der Zee added that Jonker was an “obvious” candidate to replace Parsons given his “experience” within women’s football, although Jonker will also add “a lot of knowledge and experience from the top of men’s football.”
Van der Zee went on to admit that Jonker had been on their radar for a while as he continued: It’s not for nothing that we’ve polled Andries before. He has been on our list for a while. It is therefore good news that he can and wants to step in so quickly to lead the team towards qualifying for the World Cup.
“In the end, the OranjeLeeuwinnen always have to play for the prizes and that’s how Andries sees it. We are very much looking forward to our collaboration.”
Parsons was sacked earlier this month following his failure to guide the Netherlands to a second UEFA Women’s Euro title, as the Oranje were eliminated by France in extra-time in the Quarter-Finals.
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