Erik ten Hag is open to returning to training, but does not expect to work with the Dutch national team

Erik ten Hag, currently serving as technical director at FC Twente, does not rule out a return to the coaching bench, but at the same time he does not expect to take over as coach of the Dutch national team anytime soon. Ten Hag, who started and ended his playing career at Twente, has been out of a coaching job since he was sacked by Bayer Leverkusen after just three games at the start of the 2025-26 season. His contract with Twente runs until June 2028.  The current coach of the Netherlands national team is Ronald Koeman, whose contract expires after the end of the ongoing World Cup. Although Ten Hag admitted that he likes the idea of ​​managing the national team, he has no plans to prematurely end his contract with Twente. "I signed a two-year contract with FC Twente, so I will be there for another two years," he said in an interview with NOS. "I'm not going to talk about my contract now. I would dream of being the coach of the national team. It has come up before, but it wasn't from the KNVB. If you could experience it, you would definitely want to do it." Early in his coaching career, Ten Hag led Go Ahead Eagles to their first promotion in 17 years, and with Utrecht he reached the Dutch Cup final in 2016, earning the club a place in European competition the following season. He then led Ajax to three Eredivisie titles in five years, which caught the attention of Manchester United. With the Red Devils, he won the League Cup and the FA Cup, but the team's decline in form led to his dismissal in October 2024. Then came the unsuccessful adventure with Bayer Leverkusen, but Ten Hag still wants to return to training in the future. "I didn't get tired of the coaching profession itself, but I became more picky," he added. "I was a coach for 10 years and it was quite good. However, the experiences with technical directors and owners in recent years were not the best."