{"id":376351,"date":"2026-04-04T08:06:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/376351\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:06:47","slug":"koeman-urges-netherlands-difference-maker-depay-to-regain-fitness-for-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/376351\/","title":{"rendered":"Koeman urges Netherlands’ ‘difference-maker’ Depay to regain fitness for World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman has urged “difference-maker” Memphis Depay to regain fitness and “be in top form” for this summer’s World Cup.<\/p>\n

Depay was left out of Koeman’s squad for the March international break after the Corinthians forward suffered a thigh injury, though he still travelled to Netherlands for treatment.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old was Netherlands’ star performer during their qualifiers, scoring eight goals and providing four assists in eight matches.<\/p>\n

Only Erling Haaland scored (16) and directly contributed to more goals (16) than Depay in the UEFA World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n

During that impressive qualifying campaign, Depay also became Netherland’s all-time leading scorer with 55 goals, surpassing Robin van Persie’s previous record of 50.<\/p>\n

Koeman believes the former Manchester United man can play a crucial role this summer, but only if he is fit in time for the tournament.<\/p>\n

“He [Depay] came through training and had lunch with us,” said Koeman. “I also said: before you know it, it\u2019ll be time [for the World Cup].<\/p>\n

“He needs to be in top form, otherwise he won\u2019t be the difference-maker he should be. But I don\u2019t think Memphis will be scared so easily.”<\/p>\n

After a 2-1 victory over Norway, who were without Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard, on Friday, Netherlands host Ecuador in Eindhoven on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Koeman’s side last lost a match in March 2025, losing on penalties to Spain in the Nations League quarter-finals, while their last defeat in 90 minutes came against Germany in October 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman has urged “difference-maker” Memphis Depay to regain fitness <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[156881],"tags":[8013,156884,7225],"class_list":{"0":"post-376351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-fittonesu","10":"tag-7225"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/wakoka.com\/@life\/116345411451122510","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}