Ruud Krol

Rudolf Jozef "Ruud" Krol was born on 24 March 1949 and is a Dutch former professional footballer. He earned 83 caps for the Netherlands and spent the bulk of his playing days at his hometown club, Ajax. Widely considered one of the finest defenders ever, Krol operated mainly as a sweeper or left-back. He debuted for the Netherlands in 1969 against England and retired from international duty in 1983. During the 1974 FIFA World Cup, where the Dutch finished as runners-up, Krol featured primarily at left-back.

Krol began his career at Ajax under Rinus Michels, playing just one match in his debut season of 1968–69. After left-back Theo van Duivenbode left for Feyenoord in the summer of 1969, Krol became a regular. He missed Ajax’s 1971 European Cup final win due to a broken leg but played in the 1972 and 1973 finals. While teammates like Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens moved on, Krol stayed at Ajax until June 1980, serving as captain from October 1974 after Piet Keizer’s departure. He then spent four months with the Vancouver Whitecaps in the North American Soccer League before joining Napoli in September 1980, where he earned the nicknames Grande Rudy and Il Tulipano Azzurro. He finished his playing career at Cannes in the French second division, retiring in 1986.

Internationally, Krol was a key part of the Netherlands’ Total Football system in the 1970s. In the 1974 World Cup, he set up Cruyff’s goal against Brazil and scored a long-range strike against Argentina. He was also in the Dutch squad that took third place at the 1976 European Championship. By the 1978 World Cup, Krol had shifted to sweeper and captained the side after Cruyff’s retirement; the Netherlands lost the final again.

He captained the team at the 1980 European Championship, where they failed to advance past the group stage, and played in qualifying campaigns for the 1982 World Cup and 1984 European Championship before his last international match in 1983. With 83 caps, he was the Netherlands’ most-capped player at the time of his retirement, a record later broken by Aron Winter at Euro 2000. Krol captained the Dutch team 45 times, the third-highest total behind Virgil van Dijk and Frank de Boer.

After retiring, Krol became a manager. He started with K.V. Mechelen in July 1989 but was sacked in January 1990. He later served as head coach of Egypt and as assistant manager for the Netherlands under Frank Rijkaard and Louis van Gaal, and for Ajax under Ronald Koeman. He took over as Ajax’s interim manager when Koeman resigned in February 2005.

He managed Ajaccio in France’s Ligue 2 from 2006 to 2007. Krol managed Zamalek from 1997 to 1999, winning the Afro-Asian Club Championship in 1997. He returned to Zamalek in August 2007 as a stabilizing presence after several managerial changes, winning the Egypt Cup in 2008 before leaving. He then signed a three-year contract with South Africa’s Orlando Pirates, winning the MTN8, the Nedbank Cup, and the national league in his final season, though his contract was not renewed.

In September 2013, he took charge of the Tunisia national team for the World Cup playoff against Cameroon while also managing CS Sfaxien. That year, he won the CAF Confederation Cup and the Tunisian league with Sfaxien. He quit as Tunisia’s interim coach after the World Cup playoff loss and resigned from Sfaxien after the second leg of the Confederation Cup final on 30 November 2013. In January 2014, he was appointed head coach of Tunisian side ES Tunis.

Krol married Yvonne van Ingen on 6 July 1972; the couple has a daughter. On 26 September 1974, he and teammate Arie Haan opened a snack bar on Reguliersbreestraat in Amsterdam. His father, Rudolf Josef Krol (nicknamed Kuki, 1922–2003), was a member of the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation and helped hide George Horn, brother of referee Leo Horn, enabling him to survive the war.

During the 1974 World Cup, Krol scored an own goal against Bulgaria. He won multiple honors with Ajax, including six Eredivisie titles, four KNVB Cups, three European Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, and the Intercontinental Cup. With the Netherlands, he was a World Cup runner-up in 1974 and 1978 and finished third at Euro 1976, also winning the Tournoi de Paris in 1978. Individually, he was named to the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team in 1974 and 1978 and to the UEFA Euro Team of the Tournament.