Soccer: A gander at the 'Goose'

Guus Hiddink has worked wonders with South Korea and Australia. Picture / Reuters

In Australia he is known as "Goose".

In South Korea, "The Big Team Killer".

And in his native Netherlands, he is the archetypal "Boeren", a term city dwellers apply to people from the rural east that translates as yokel or farmer.

If the Football Association is brave enough to pick the best man for the England job, regardless of birthplace, it may not be a question of what they will call Guus Hiddink, but when.

Hiddink, a divorced motorbike aficionado who turns 60 in November, has admitted an interest in succeeding Sven Goran Eriksson as England manager, assuming the clamour for an Englishman does not scare off the Football Association. But what sort of man would it be getting?

The glib answer, were it not for the fact that Hiddink will take charge of Australia at the World Cup finals, is one who would have liked nothing better than to spend the summer touring Europe on his Harley Davidson or renovating the large house he has bought in central Amsterdam.

But Hiddink, as his agent Cees van Nieuwenhuizen asserts, is a "World Cup addict". In the last two tournaments, he led the Netherlands and South Korea to the semifinals, the first coach to perform such a double. In club football, too, his credentials dwarf those of any English candidate. PSV Eindhoven, whom he took to victory in the European Cup, are still in Champions' League contention and on course to retain the Dutch title.

With Australia, he has already exceeded expectations by steering them through a play-off with Uruguay. In the parochial world of English football, the performances of two Premiership-based Aussies were keenly observed. Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka are hugely gifted attackers, yet scarcely renowned for a surfeit of what might be termed "heart". So it reflected vast credit on Hiddink's motivational powers that the former Leeds United duo played like men possessed against Uruguay.

Viduka, who has reacted to being named captain with the most potent and committed football of his life, hails him as a "tactical genius". In fact, he is extremely flexible in terms of systems, favouring 4-3-3 at PSV and 3-5-2 with Australia.

But for formations to work, players must have confidence. Lee Young-Pyo, the Korean now with Tottenham, says that Hiddink gave them "the belief that we could beat anyone".

Perhaps crucially given the singular demands of managing England, the Dutch radio journalist Rob Fleur points out that Hiddink's man-management ability includes positive media relations wherever he works.

For someone who became a cult figure in far-flung places, Hiddink's hero status was at first highly localised. Born near the German border shortly afterWorld War II, he played for the amateur side Varsseveld before being spotted by the De Graafschap club of Doetinchen.

De Graafschap played a large part in shaping him; he returned twice after being transferred, the first time after fans chipped in 10 guilders each to buy him back from PSV. Even in those early days he was a strategist and organiser. In 1968, he became player-assistant coach. He was 21.

Hiddink was an unexceptional player. Although blessed with a good left foot, he had negligible pace.

The most notable incident from his playing days was not a stunning goal, or a killer pass, but the tragi-farce of the sending-off that never was.

A De Graafschap teammate, Henk Overgoor, had swallowed his false teeth and was literally dying on the turf. The referee waved play on, prompting Hiddink to commit what reports called an "atrocious foul" to draw attention to Overgoor's plight. His dismissal was rescinded.

Late in his playing days came summers in the North American Soccer League, with the Washington Diplomats and the San Jose Earthquakes, where he partnered Colin Bell, formerly of Manchester City.

His first major coaching break came with PSV in 1987. After their European Cup victory, foreign clubs courted him, and he had stints in Istanbul and Valencia. But the call of home remained strong and in 1995 he became Netherlands coach, taking them to the penultimate stage of the World Cup in France.

Hiddink's next job World Cup promised to tax his powers. South Korea had been to five World Cups and failed to win once. As co-hosts, it would be embarrassing if the pattern persisted. Korean anxieties surfaced in criticism of their new coach for, as the media saw it, spending time with his Dutch partner, Liesbeth, when he should have been coaching.

South Korea defeated Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain before falling to Germany with the final within touching distance. Perceptions of Hiddink changed overnight: he was given a private villa, free flights for life and had a stadium named after him. But he missed the day-to-day buzz of the training ground - which he would have to forgo once more if he replaced Eriksson - and eventually returned to PSV.

He has a contract until 2007 and intends to honour it.

Were the FA to move for Hiddink, that could leave England in the same position as Australia for 12 months, with a part-time coach. It may be a price worth paying.

During only a brief time with the Socceroos, they have qualified for the World Cup after a 32-year absence, despite the logistical problems in convening the squad for training, not to mention Uruguay's superior skill and traditions.

His masterstroke in Sydney was to replace a defender with Kewell, who had been out of sorts at club level, during the first half. Boldness was rewarded when the Liverpool enigma was promptly involved in the build-up to Australia's crucial goal.

Eriksson, by contrast, is frequently over-cautious in his use of substitutes. Hiddink's golden touch, tinged with rustic orange, could help turn England's potential into prizes.

- INDEPENDENT