Rangers treble-winning legend comes out of 'retirement' for special role

Former Rangers manager Dick Advocaat has taken up a ‘special assistant’ role at FC Utrecht, despite suggesting he would retire from football last year.

The 74-year-old has been appointed to the dugout as an assistant to Rick Kruys who has assumed the reigns after the dismissal of Rene Hake from the Dutch side earlier this week. Advocaat ended his playing career at Utrecht and his 42 years as a coach will be put to use as a sounding board for the rookie manager stepping into his first management role.

It is a quick turnaround for the former Rangers veteran too – last May he left Feyenoord after two years which featured in the Disney-Plus documentary series ‘That One Word’.

The ‘Little General’ was set to retire after De Kuip however he was quickly back in the dugout and added Iraq to his international CV – but resigned four months later.

Dick Advocaat won all three domestic trophies in his first season at Rangers to complete the treble. He also retained the League title and Scottish Cup double the following season. (Picture: SNS)

The Utrecht job is his 26th in management which has included three spells in charge of his national side as well as a silver-laden spell in Scotland where he led Rangers to a five trophies in two years – completing the domestic treble in his first season 1998-99 – and recruiting current Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst as a player.

He later took on a director of football role when Alex McLeish arrived at Ibrox – though he crossed paths with the club again in 2008 as manager of Zenit St Petersburg, Rangers’ opponents in the UEFA Cup Final at the City of Manchester Stadium.

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