Dick Advocaat

Advocaat was born in The Hague and was a defensive midfielder during his playing days. His career began as an 18-year-old with Hague club ADO Den Haag, and he made his professional debut with the club on 21 May 1967 in a 3–0 win against GVAV. He only featured for Den Haag once more that season, and that summer, the San Francisco Golden Gate Gales franchise imported the Den Haag team, which included Advocaat, to play for six weeks in the United Soccer Association as part of an effort to make the sport more popular in the United States. It was the following season that Advocaat won his only honour as a player, the KNVB Cup, in 1968. In the 1969–70 season, he became a regular in the side, making 29 appearances and scoring his first goal for the club. He made 33 appearances the season after that. From the 1971–72, the club merged with Holland Sport to become FC Den Haag. That season, his final one for the club, Advocaat made a further 66 appearances and scored 6 goals. In total, he made 147 appearances and scored 7 goals for the club. From 1973, Advocaat's playing career continued for Roda JC until he moved to VVV during the 1976–77 season. With Roda JC, Advocaat made 121 total appearances and scored 2 goals. When the club was to be discontinued in 2009, Goal.com described him as their most famous player. In his first season with VVV, Advocaat scored 2 goals in 20 appearances. He made 33 appearances in the 1977–78 season, scoring four goals, and made a further 21 appearances in…

1981–92: Early coaching in the Netherlands

In addition to playing football, Advocaat was a physical education teacher and became involved in coaching in 1981 when his older brother Jaap was offered a job running amateur Saturday football side Door Samenwerking Verkregen Pijnacker (DSVP). Jaap did not take the role but recommended Dick for the job. Advocaat coached this side during the final four years of his playing career with Sparta Rotterdam and Utrecht. In 1984, Advocaat was unexpectedly appointed as assistant to Netherlands national team head coach Rinus Michels. Advocaat became a protégé of Michels, whose sobriquet was "The General". In reference to this, Advocaat acquired the nickname "The Little General". In 1987, Advocaat became manager of his first professional club, HFC Haarlem, which he led for two years. Haarlem finished in ninth place in the 1987–88 season and tenth place in the 1988–89 season. Haarlem were eliminated in the second round of the KNVB Cup in both seasons. Advocaat then moved to Schiedamse Voetbal Vereniging (SVV) as manager. At SVV, alongside technical director Wim Jansen, Advocaat led the team to become Eerste Divisie champions in the 1989–90 season to win promotion to the 1990–91 Eredivisie, winning by 15 points. In 1991, SVV merged with neighbouring club Dordrecht '90, which failed to win promotion to the 1991 play-offs. SVV had finished 16th the previous season, but remained in the Eredivisie after winning their relegation play-off.…

Advocaat is teetotal.

Player

ADO Den Haag

KNVB Cup: 1967-68

Manager

SVV

Eerste Divisie: 1989–90 PSV Eindhoven

Eredivisie: 1996–97 KNVB Cup: 1995–96 Johan Cruyff Shield: 1996, 1997, 2012 Rangers

Scottish Premier League: 1998–99, 1999–2000 Scottish Cup: 1998–99, 1999–2000 Scottish League Cup: 1998–99 Zenit Saint Petersburg

Russian Premier League: 2007 UEFA Cup: 2007–08 UEFA Super Cup: 2008

Individual

The 2008 UEFA Cup success earned Advocaat the Honorary Citizen of Saint Petersburg award, making him the city's first foreign honorary citizen since 1866.