Xavi turns to Dutch football experience as former Morocco midfielder joins Netherlands staff

Xavi will have former Morocco international Adil Ramzi alongside him after taking charge of the Netherlands, with the 49-year-old bringing extensive experience of Dutch football to the new coaching team.

The appointment marks Xavi’s return to management after a two-year absence. The Barcelona legend had previously been linked with the Morocco job, but has now been selected to lead the Netherlands national team.

Ramzi is joining Xavi’s staff as an assistant. He won 41 caps for Morocco, scoring five goals during his international career, and spent the majority of his playing career in the Netherlands.

His familiarity with the country’s football is also rooted in his coaching work. Ramzi has worked with the youth sections at PSV Eindhoven and with the Netherlands’ youth teams, giving him an understanding of the environment Xavi is now entering.

That experience is expected to help the Spanish coach as he begins work in a new international setting. Ramzi’s background in Dutch football will provide an important point of familiarity within the staff, particularly after Xavi’s two-year spell away from coaching.

The move has attracted attention in Morocco because Ramzi had previously declined the opportunity to take on a comparable role with his country’s national team.

Moroccan media have noted the apparent contradiction, pointing out that Ramzi had rejected assistant positions on two occasions because he did not see himself “en tant qu’adjoint secondaire” – in the role of a secondary assistant.

His first refusal came in 2022, when he turned down an approach from Walid Regragui. He later rejected a similar proposal from Mohamed Ouahbi more recently.

Ramzi’s decision to join Xavi in the Netherlands therefore represents a return to the type of international coaching role he had previously chosen not to accept with Morocco. His appointment also reconnects him with the Dutch football culture in which he developed much of his playing and coaching career.

For Xavi, the arrival of Ramzi provides the new Netherlands set-up with a coach who combines international experience as a former Morocco player with detailed knowledge of the Dutch system.

The former Barcelona figure is now back in the international coaching circuit, having been appointed Netherlands manager after two years without a managerial role. His partnership with Ramzi will begin as he prepares to work in an unfamiliar national-team environment, supported by an assistant with longstanding links to Dutch football.