Football Icons Ruud Gullit and Dick Advocaat's Exclusive World Cup Rift: 'Pure Suicide'

For many football enthusiasts, the image remains vivid: a visibly dejected Gullit leaving the Dutch national team's training camp. The Sampdoria star clashed fiercely with Advocaat during preparations for the World Cup in the United States over the Dutch team's playing style.

Advocaat wanted the Netherlands to play with three defenders and an attacking midfield. Gullit deemed this unwise, especially given the extreme temperatures during the World Cup in the United States. He believed an offensive approach in the heat would be disastrous.

When Gullit departed from the squad, he even called the playing style "pure suicide." After a friendly match against Scotland, he had already indicated he didn't want to go to the World Cup. Advocaat claimed to be completely surprised and asked Gullit to reconsider his decision overnight. However, the Dutch star did not join the team in the United States, remaining the only one left behind in the Netherlands.

Gullit eventually apologized only 26 years later. He did so at the presentation of the HollandBelgium Bid for the 2018 World Cup in Noordwijk. To this day, Gullit still regrets his decision not to play in the tournament, though he kept his comments brief. "If I could have done it differently, I would have done it immediately," Gullit reflected remorsefully in an interview with Sportnieuws.nl. "I'll leave it at that."

Advocaat also spoke out about the situation again more than thirty years later. The former Dutch national coach told this site that he still doubts whether the tactical discussion was truly the sole reason for Gullit's departure. "An attacking playing style is certainly impossible in the scorching heat, but whether that was Ruud's real reason, we still don't know," Advocaat stated.

Despite the star player's high-profile departure, the Netherlands did not have a failed World Cup. Under Advocaat's leadership, the Dutch reached the quarterfinals of the tournament, where eventual world champions Brazil proved too strong. "You couldn't really play football there. But with the Netherlands, we reached the last eight, so we did quite well," the now 78-year-old coach remarked. The FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada truly kicks off on Thursday evening.

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