Netherlands at the 2026 World Cup: Roster, Predictions, and Statistics

The Netherlands is one of the most unlucky teams in the world championships. The Oranje have played in the finals three times (1974, 1978, and 2010) and each time they ended up with silver medals. In 2014, under the leadership of Louis van Gaal, the Netherlands won bronze.

Now it's the era of Ronald Koeman. Interestingly, this is the coach's second stint with the team. In his first stint, under the legendary defender, Flying Dutchmen finished second in the Nations League (2019). The specialist's second stint has lasted more than three years and has been marked by the semi-finals of Euro 2024 and the quarter-finals of the same Nations League 2024/25. Will the Netherlands be able to shed their "losers" status in the upcoming World Cup?

In short:

• The Netherlands, along with France, are fifth in terms of the number of finals played at the World Cups. Both teams have played three title matches. Unlike the French, Flying Dutchmen have not lifted a single cup.
• The Netherlands squad includes three Liverpool players – Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch, and Cody Gakpo. The same number of representatives come from Brighton: Bart Verbruggen, Jan-Paul van Hecke, and Mats Viffer.
• Also, on the fields of North America, you will be able to see the team's top scorer, Memphis Depay. Not included in the squad: Jeremy Frimpong, Matthijs de Ligt, Xavi Simons, and Stefan de Vrij.
• Bookmakers rate the Netherlands' chances of winning the World Cup at 3.6%.
• In the group stage of the World Cup, the Netherlands will play against Japan, Sweden, and Tunisia.

Netherlands Squad for the 2026 World Cup

Goalkeepers: Bart Verbruggen (Brighton), Mark Flekken (Bayer), Robin Roefs (Sunderland).

Defenders: Nathan Ake (Manchester City), Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool), Denzel Dumfries (Inter), Jorrel Hato (Chelsea), Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton), Jurrien Timber (Arsenal), Mickey van de Ven (Tottenham).

Midfielders: Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool), Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona), Teun Koopmeiners (Juventus), Tijjani Reijnders (Manchester City), Marten De Roon (Atalanta), Guus Til (PSV), Quinten Maduro (Marseille), Mats Wiiffer (Brighton).

Forwards: Cody Gakpo (Liverpool), Donyell Malen (Roma), Brian Brobbey (Sunderland), Noa Lang (Galatasaray), Memphis Depay (Corinthians), Wout Weghorst (Ajax), Crysencio Summerville (West Ham), Justin Kluivert (Bournemouth).

Head Coach: Ronald Koeman

Main Star

In the Netherlands, it's quite difficult to single out one footballer. If Xavi Simons hadn't been injured before the World Cup, he would probably have been the "main violin" due to the combination of youth and the quality of football shown. As it is, the team has many star veterans who are close to or already over 30 years old – Virgil van Dijk, Denzel Dumfries, Marten de Roon, Memphis Depay, Nathan Ake, and Frenkie de Jong.

Main Problem of the Netherlands

The main problem of the team can certainly be called personnel losses. Xavi Simons, Matthijs de Ligt, Jeremy Frimpong, and Stefan de Vrij. All these footballers struggled with injuries at the end or during the season, so some of them, even after recovering, missed the squad (Frimpong). In addition, among those called up to the national team, there are players like Memphis Depay, who have only recently recovered from injuries but have not had time to regain their match fitness.

Young Talent

The Netherlands squad does not have many young footballers. The average age of the team is over 27 years. The youngest will be Chelsea player Jorrel Hato (20 years old). In the first half of his debut season for the club, the defender didn't play often, but after the winter break, he secured a place in the starting lineup. Jorrel is excellent at advancing the ball from deep and consistently maintains 90+% passing accuracy. In addition, Hato is good at his defensive duties, averaging 0.85 successful tackles and 0.73 interceptions per 90 minutes.

Who will miss the World Cup 2026

The main loss will be Xavi Simons. The Tottenham midfielder tore his ACL in April. But apart from the main young hope of the national team, the absence of a couple of significant footballers can be highlighted. Unexpectedly left out of the squad was Jeremy Frimpong, who, although often injured during the season for Liverpool, was an important player in the starting lineup when fit. More understandable are the omissions of national team veteran Stefan de Vrij and Matthijs de Ligt. The former is appearing less and less for Inter due to his age, while the Manchester United defender has been struggling with back problems since the end of last year and recently underwent surgery.

Netherlands National Team Form

Qualification

The Netherlands went through Group G of the European World Cup qualifiers without a single defeat in eight matches, allowing only two draws. Poland was the closest pursuer, trailing by three points. It was also the team that twice took points from the Dutch – both head-to-head matches ended in a 1:1 draw.

Recent Results

After the World Cup qualification ended in December last year, the Netherlands played two friendly matches. First, the Oranje claimed a hard-fought victory over Norway (2:1), and then earned a draw against Ecuador (1:1) despite being a man down.

Preparation for the World Cup

Before the World Cup, the Netherlands will host Algeria (28th in the FIFA rankings). The Dutch team will delight fans in Rotterdam – the match will take place at Feyenoord's De Kuip stadium. Then, Ronald Koeman's charges will head directly to the World Cup venue, where they will play against Uzbekistan, ranked 50th in the FIFA rankings, at the Carl Aiken Stadium in New York.

World Cup 2026 Match Schedule

Netherlands' chances of advancing from the group

Bookmakers are almost certain that the Netherlands team will make it to the World Cup playoffs, assuming that Koeman's team will advance from the group with a 95% probability, and that they will do so from the first place – 75%.

Bookmakers' odds for the Netherlands team at the 2026 World Cup

Scores24's forecast for the Netherlands team

The Netherlands team is the "dark horse" of the upcoming tournament. With such a status, the Oranje often approach any major international tournament. Remembering the last World Cup 2022: the team led by Louis van Gaal was knocked out in the quarterfinals, but did so more than decently - by penalties from the future champions Argentina (2:2 in regular time; 3:4 after the penalty shootout).

Since 1990, Flying Dutchmen have missed only two World Cups, and in all the others they have not been eliminated earlier than the 1/8 finals of the playoffs. Moreover, they only stopped at the second round stage twice, more often – they went further (5 out of 7 times). So we expect the Netherlands at least in the quarterfinals. And the odds for such an outcome are quite attractive – about 1.8*.

Predictions for all 2026 World Cup matches will be available in the tournament section starting from June 9.

*the coefficients are approximate, may vary in different bookmakers and are current at the time of publication