The Netherlands, under coach Olivier Amelink, will be making their debut appearance at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2025™.
The team, which won the European Championship in May under Amelink’s predecessor Sherida van Bruggen, will travel to Morocco with momentum on their side.
Ahead of the tournament, Amelink spoke to FIFA about the Netherlands’ group opponents, the significance of the U-17 Women’s World Cup and his approach to the game.
Olivier Amelink: I think it will be a great challenge for players in this age group to play against teams from other continents, and that they will take this experience with them as they progress in their careers. The most important goal is to develop a culture and style of play that increases our chances of winning and allows the players to show their potential. We want to become world champions.
Extremely important. Participating in a World Cup is a unique experience and a stage on which the players are further stimulated in their development.
It’s exciting for us that we’re already playing a real World Cup in the group stage, because we’ll be competing against three different continents. Korea and Mexico are known for their cohesive teams, their discipline and their intensity in executing their tasks. Cameroon has physically strong and fast players and could surprise us.
Winning the European Championship in the Faroe Islands was a unique achievement that demonstrates the unity of this team, which extends beyond the time spent in the Faroes. After a difficult start to last season, the team showed in the qualifiers against strong opponents that it can reach its potential under pressure.
I think the potential of the players and the cohesion with which the team worked under the leadership of a tenacious coaching and support staff were the foundations for this success.
I will discover the value for this age group, because this World Cup will be a new journey for all of us. But on the way to raising new ‘Oranjeleeuwinnen’, I think it’s very important that the players experience what it means to play in a World Cup, to compete against other cultures and continents, and to show our own identity on the biggest stage in the world in this age group.
We try to win with a style of play that we all believe in. Dutch football is known for organised, purposeful positional play with a lot of dynamism and high intensity against the ball in order to win the game.
We will be carrying out a social activity in collaboration with WorldCoaches. We want the players to grow not only as footballers but also as people by learning about Moroccan culture and getting involved there.
