Payback time How Dutch players could power Suriname to the World Cup

PARAMARIBO – For years the small South American country of Suriname, a former Dutch colony, has been instrumental in producing some of the Netherlands’ best footballers, from Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit to Clarence Seedorf.

Now, nearly 40 years after Gullit inspired the Dutch to victory in the 1988 European Championships, their only major trophy, the boot is on the other foot.

Suriname is banking on Dutch players of Surinamese origin to help it achieve its wildest dream – booking a spot in the Fifa World Cup Finals for the first time when it comes to North America in June 2026.

“It’s a dream of the nation and we hope that we can fulfil that dream,” the president of the Suriname football federation Soerin Mathoera, told AFP in a recent interview in the Surinamese capital Paramaribo.

The tropical country of 600,000 people situated on the north-east coast of South America, ranked 137th in the world by Fifa, looked on with pride as its children’s children helped revive the fortunes of the struggling “Oranje” in the late 1980s.

After failing to qualify for the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, a fabled trio of Surinamese-origin – Rijkaard, Gullit and Aron Winter – formed the nucleus of a new Dutch dream team.

It was not all plain sailing for players of color in the overwhelmingly white Dutch teams of the day.

Gullit complained of receiving racial abuse.

But the Surinamese influence endured.

In the 1990s, the likes of Edgar Davids helped the Netherlands reach the semi-final of the 1998 World Cup.

Current Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk, who has been a standout centre-back for English champions Liverpool, was born in the Dutch city of Breda to a Dutch father and Surinamese mother.

Now the time has come for Suriname football to have its