Trophies, cooking and tax fraud
Russia manager Guus
Hiddink is in talks with Chelsea about taking charge until
the end of the season.
Here's the lowdown on the man set to follow Luiz Felipe Scolari
into the Stamford Bridge hotseat, temporarily at least.
1) Guus Hiddink was born on 8 November 1946 in
Varsseveld, Holland.
2) After playing for amateur club SC Varsseveld
he turned professional with De Graafschap in 1967, where he spent
three spells as a midfielder.
3) Hiddink spent 18 months playing in the North
American Soccer League in the 1970s, turning out for Washington
Diplomats and San Jose Earthquakes.
4) Hiddink’s major club success has come with
PSV Eindhoven. He only spent two seasons there as a player, but he
has had two spells as manager. He graduated from assistant to boss
in 1987, winning the league three times and claiming PSV’s first
and so far only European Cup crown in 1988 – part of a Treble. He
returned for round two in 2002 after his World Cup exploits with
South Korea, claiming another three league titles and a fourth
Dutch Cup. He is the most successful Dutch coach in history.
5) He had a close call with British football in
2000 – Celtic pursued him to replace the failed John Barnes. BBC
Scotland and STV had both already announced the Real Betis boss was
heading for Parkhead – but the PLC board pushed through Martin
O’Neill’s recruitment from Leicester instead.
6) Hiddink has taken four teams to the finals
of major international tournaments, most recently getting Russia to
Euro 2008 at the expense of Steve McClaren’s England, where he
guided them to the semi-finals. His other knockout successes are:
Netherlands (1998 World Cup semi-finals), South Korea (2002
World Cup semi-finals) and Australia (2006 World Cup second
round).
7) Korean Air, the national airline, gave
Hiddink free first class travel for four years after the national
side’s World Cup success. The World Cup stadium in Gwangju was
renamed Guus Hiddink stadium, stamps and statues were produced and
16 biographies were written in his honour. Back in Holland a museum
dedicated to Hiddink was opened in his home town. Popular for the
first two years, the museum closed in 2005 and is now being
demolished. And Hiddink is still giving something back – the
Guus Hiddink foundation helps deprived children in South
Korea.
8) Manchester United fans should also be
grateful to Hiddink for the impact he had on Park Ji-Sung at PSV and with the national team.
Park credits Hiddink with making him
the player he is after a dressing room pep talk, and the United man clearly loves his old
boss’s cooking too…
9) Hiddink has previous experience of looking
after two teams at once after continuing to manage PSV Eindhoven
while also guiding Australia to the 2006 World Cup.
10) Hiddink was given a six month suspended
sentence in 2007 after being found guilty of tax fraud. He was
accused of evading £940,000 in Dutch taxes by claiming he was
resident in Belgium from 2002-2003. He was fined £30,000.