WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao (AP) — Dick Advocaat has resigned as Curaçao head coach due to his daughter’s health issues and won’t lead the team at the World Cup.

The 78-year-old Dutchman was set to lead the Caribbean country into an opener against four-time champion Germany in June.

“I’ve always said that family comes before football,” Advocaat said in a statement released Monday by the country’s soccer federation. “This is therefore a natural decision. But that doesn’t change the fact that I will miss Curaçao, the people there, and my colleagues very much.”

“I consider qualifying the smallest country in the world for the World Cup one of the highlights of my career,” he added. “I’m proud of my players, staff, and the board members who believed in us.”

Fred Rutten has been appointed as his successor, the federation said. He previously coached FC Twente, PSV, Feyenoord and Schalke 04.

Curaçao will go to the World Cup as the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the marquee event in men’s soccer.

Curaçao, an autonomous territory of about 156,000 people within the Netherlands kingdom, took the record of Iceland, with a population of just over 350,000, which was the previous smallest country to reach the World Cup when it qualified for Russia 2018.

The team is relying heavily on players born and raised in the Netherlands. Curaçao has actively recruited from its diaspora, getting permission from FIFA within world soccer’s rules to change the national-team eligibility of players who once represented the Netherlands at youth or Under-21 level, including five since August.

Advocaat took his native Netherlands to the quarterfinals at the 1994 World Cup and coached South Korea at the 2006 tournament in Germany.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer