Pim Verbeek

As a player, Verbeek was a defender or a midfielder and spent his entire career at Sparta Rotterdam. He played there for two stints: from 1974 to 1975 and from 1977 to 1980.

South Korea

Verbeek was the assistant coach of the South Korean national team under Guus Hiddink at the 2002 FIFA World Cup and also under Dick Advocaat at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Prior to this, he coached various teams in his home country, including De Graafschap, Groningen, Fortuna Sittard and even Feyenoord. He also served as the assistant coach of the United Arab Emirates national team. Verbeek began coaching South Korea on 26 June 2006. He led South Korea to a third-place finish at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, guaranteeing them automatic qualification to the next tournament. He left in July 2007.

Australia

Verbeek was linked to coaching the Australian national team after he stated that he would welcome another job in Asia. He had previously been linked with the Socceroos in 2005. On 6 December 2007, it was announced that Verbeek had secured his position as Australia's coach. In his first World Cup qualifying match as head coach, he led Australia to a 3-0 win against Qatar at home. Verbeek's poor opinion of the standard of the A-League was well-known, describing the performances of locally-based players Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp against Indonesia as "absolutely hopeless" and openly questioning the decision of Jason Culina to leave PSV Eindhoven and return home to play in Australia. When asked about possible improvements for the quality of football in the A-League, he said "Do you have an hour?" and "I am just being honest." Under Verbeek, the…

Verbeek usually employed two holding midfielders and a sole striker up front. His teams usually played conservatively with a slow tempo, built up play gradually and heavily relied on crosses and team passes.

Verbeek's brother Robert is also a football coach. However, they are not related to yet another coach, Gertjan Verbeek, who also coached Feyenoord. He died on 28 November 2019 at 63, after a four-year battle with cancer.