Bert Van Marwijk named Socceroos coach for World Cup

The long wait for a successor to Ange Postecoglou is finally over, after a coach was named for Australia’s World Cup campaign.

New Socceroos coach Bert van Marwijk.

The Socceroos have a new coach after Dutchman Bert van Marwijk was signed to take Australia to the World Cup.

Football Federation Australia made the announcement today that van Marwijk will lead Australia at football’s showpiece in Russia, in June-July. He will replace Ange Postecoglou, who resigned in November after qualifying the Socceroos for the finals.

Van Marwijk coached Saudi Arabia during the Asian World Cup qualifiers, helping them to qualify automatically at the expense of Australia, who finished third in the group and advanced only after winning sudden-death qualifiers against Syria and Honduras.

The 55-year-old Dutchman was favourite for the position despite a number of high-profile candidates being mentioned, including Roberto Mancini, Louis van Gaal, Slaven Bilic and Jurgen Klinsmann.

Van Marwijk has plenty of experience at club and international level, having coached Feyenoord and Borussia Dortmund, as well as the Netherlands.

It is understood Football Federation Australia clinched the deal with van Marwijk in the past 24 hours after talks in the Netherlands.

His appointment is expected to be short term only, with FFA likely to appoint a local coach — most likely Graham Arnold — on a full-time basis after Russia.

FFA chairman Steven Lowy said Marwijk’s experience was “the perfect blend” for the Socceroos.

“This is a great result for Australian football,” Lowy said in a statement. “Bert van Marwijk is world class. He took the Netherlands to the World Cup Final in 2010, he led the Saudi Arabian team to qualify directly for this year’s finals and most importantly, he knows a lot about our team and how they play because he studied them closely as an opposition manager in the same group. These experiences make him a compelling choice.”

Speaking from Amsterdam, FFA chief executive David Gallop, who clinched the deal, said: “Bert was our preferred candidate, so we are delighted to have secured his services. We went through a thorough and disciplined process and used internal and external experts to build up a profile of the person who would be the best fit for the task in Russia.

“We had a number of outstanding coaches very interested in the role but Bert was at the top of our shortlist.”

Van Marwijk said he was honoured to be given the responsibility of coaching the Socceroos.

“I know a lot about the players and how the team has been playing after coaching against them for the two World Cup qualifiers, in 2016 and in June last year,” he said.

“I have also been impressed by the national team set-up that the FFA has developed over the past few years.

“My response to FFA has been that we are not going to Russia just to be competitive. I want to win our matches.”