The Hague (AFP)

Former Dutch international footballer Franck de Boer has been appointed coach of the Netherlands national team, with the goal of the 2022 World Cup, the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) announced on Wednesday.

Third most capped player in the Netherlands, De Boer will therefore take over from Ronald Koeman who resigned earlier this year to take the reins of FC Barcelona.

Technically speaking, De Boer will succeed Dwight Lodeweges, interim coach of the Oranje team since mid-August.

"The 50-year-old coach will lead our national team until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar," the KNVB said in its statement.

"De Boer will start immediately, he will be on the bench for the training match against Mexico, and during the League of Nations meetings against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy", added the Royal Dutch Federation. .

A three-time World Cup finalist (1974, 1978, 2010), the Netherlands failed to qualify for Euro-2016 and for the World Cup-2018.

Franciscus de Boer, said Frank de Boer, played as a defender in the Dutch national colors between 1990 and 2004. The southpaw was considered a mainstay of the team thanks to his precise raises and heavy hitting.

However, his career as a coach is more mixed.

De Boer was one of Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk's assistants from 2008 to 2010, when the Netherlands team were finalists at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

He then coached Ajax Amsterdam, taking the team to their first Dutch league title in 2011 since the 2003-2004 season.

He won the league title four times in succession with Ajax, the only Eredivisie coach to have achieved this result.

But he left the club at the end of the 2015-2016 season after two years without a league title.

He then signed for three years at Inter Milan but was dismissed after 85 days only for lack of results.

In June 2017 De Boer was appointed coach of Crystal Palace, in the Premier League, but he was sacked after 10 weeks.

In 2018 he was chosen to succeed in MLS to Gérardo Martino who had just won the title with the team of Atlanta United.

But at the end of July 2020 the American club and its Dutch coach announced their separation by mutual agreement after the elimination of the franchise in the group stage of the North American Football League tournament.

De Boer will be presented officially by the KNVB on Friday at the national training center in Zeist, not far from Utrecht.

© 2020 AFP