Early years Van Marwijk began his professional managerial career at his former club
Fortuna Sittard. His side finished seventh in the Eredivisie in 1998, and reached the
KNVB Cup final in 1999. Fortuna had players like
Mark van Bommel,
Kevin Hofland and
Wilfred Bouma during that period.
Feyenoord In 2000, van Marwijk became the manager of
Rotterdam-based club Feyenoord. In his first season, he led Feyenoord to a second-place finish in the Eredivisie and in his second season, 2001–02, he had one of the biggest successes of his career. After beating
SC Freiburg,
Rangers,
PSV and
Internazionale in the knock-out stage, he won the
UEFA Cup final after beating
Borussia Dortmund in the
final, 3–2. In October 2002 he extended his contract until the summer of 2004, with the option of one more year. Feyenoord ended in third place in the league with van Marwijk in the
2001–02,
2002–03 and
2003–04 seasons.
Borussia Dortmund In June 2004, van Marwijk became manager of German
Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund on a two-year deal after
Matthias Sammer moved to
VfB Stuttgart. In both of his first two seasons with Dortmund,
2004–05 and
2005–06, he ended seventh in the Bundesliga table. During his third season, his side was stagnating, situated mid-table in ninth, whereupon van Marwijk and the club announced that they would part ways at the end of the
2006–07 season. On 18 December 2006, however, Dortmund and van Marwijk parted company earlier than announced.
Feyenoord In June 2007, van Marwijk returned to Feyenoord, also bringing back Feyenoord veteran
Giovanni van Bronckhorst from
Barcelona. He also brought in
Tim de Cler,
Kevin Hofland and
Roy Makaay, and with this Feyenoord squad, he won the
KNVB Cup in 2008 after beating
Roda JC 2–0 in the
final. In the
2010 World Cup, van Marwijk led the Dutch to the
final against
Spain after defeating
Slovakia in the round of 16,
Brazil in the quarter-finals and
Uruguay in the semi-finals. They lost, however, 1–0 in extra time. He opted for a very hard style of play, especially during the final, in strong contrast with the Dutch football tradition. On 8 December 2011, van Marwijk extended his contract with the
Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) for four more years through to the summer of 2016, including participation in the
2014 World Cup and
Euro 2016 tournaments. At the
Euro 2012 tournament, however, the Dutch ended up without a single point and being widely criticized, prompting van Marwijk to resign on 27 June.
Hamburg On 26 September 2013, van Marwijk became the head coach of German side
Hamburger SV after refusing offers from
Southampton and
Sporting CP. On 8 February, Hamburg lost for their sixth consecutive league match and gave up three goals in their fifth-straight league match. The supervisory board at Hamburg met on 9 February 2014 to discuss the future of van Marwijk, opting to let him continue in his role. He was then, however, sacked on 15 February after Hamburg lost 4–2 to
Eintracht Braunschweig. Hamburg had lost seven-straight league matches and a
DFB-Pokal loss to
Bayern Munich. His assistant coach, Roel Coumans, was sacked as well. On 3 September 2015, he managed his first game, winning 7–0 against
East Timor in the
2018 Asian World Cup qualifiers. On 24 March 2016, he clinched qualification to the third (final) round by winning 2–0 against
Malaysia. After criticism from local media for not staying in the country and watching league games, van Marwijk helped Saudi Arabia to directly qualify for the
2018 FIFA World Cup in their last game against Japan – their fifth FIFA World Cup and first since 2006. Days after their last qualifying match, he left his job having been unable to agree on a new contract with the
Saudi Arabian Football Federation.
Australia national team in 2018 On 24 January 2018, van Marwijk was appointed as the new head coach of the
Australian national team on a short-term deal until the end of the
2018 FIFA World Cup. On his debut on 23 March, the team lost 4–1 to Norway in a friendly in
Oslo, followed four days later by a goalless draw with
Colombia in England. In warmups ahead of the finals, the Socceroos beat the
Czech Republic and
Hungary; the 4–0 win over the former was that country's record defeat. Australia were eliminated from the group stage in Russia, with one draw and two losses.
UAE national team On 20 March 2019, van Marwijk became the new manager of the
United Arab Emirates national team. On 4 December that year, the
nation's football association announced his sacking following their 4–2 defeat to
rivals Qatar in the
24th Arabian Gulf Cup. Van Marwijk returned to the same post on 14 December 2020. At the
2021 FIFA Arab Cup in Qatar, the team lost 5–0 in the quarter-finals to their rivals. He was sacked again on 12 February 2022, with the team confirmed out of the automatic places in
2022 FIFA World Cup qualification with two games left. ==Personal life==