Suriname national football team

History

Although the former Dutch colony is located in South America, it competes in CONCACAF, together with Guyana and French Guiana. Suriname was one of the founding members of CONCACAF in 1961. Suriname won the CFU Championship (Digicel Caribbean Cup predecessor) in 1978, were runners-up in 1979 and achieved a third place finish in 1985. Suriname discourages dual citizenship and Surinamese-Dutch players who have picked up a Netherlands passport – which, crucially, offers legal work status in almost any European league – are barred from selection to the national team. Many Suriname-born players and Dutch-born players of Surinamese descent, like Gerald Vanenburg, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Andwélé Slory, Ryan Babel, Aron Winter, Romeo Castelen, Royston Drenthe, Kenneth Vermeer, Virgil van Dijk, Georginio Wijnaldum, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Jeffrey Bruma, Jeremain Lens, Marciano Bruma, Kyle Ebecilio and many more turned out to play for Oranje. In 1999, Humphrey Mijnals, who played for both Suriname and the Netherlands, was elected Surinamese footballer of the century. Another famous player is André Kamperveen, who captained Suriname in the 1940s and was the first Surinamese to play professionally in the Netherlands.

Suriname has participated in the qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup since 1962, but has never qualified for the finals. Suriname's strongest showing in World Cup qualification was the campaign for the 1978 finals, when the national team reached the final group stage.

Suriname also came second in CONCACAF qualifying for the 1964 Olympics, behind qualifiers Mexico and third in qualifying for the 1980 Olympics, behind qualifiers Costa Rica and United States. The US then boycotted the Moscow Olympics, and were replaced by Cuba in the football tournament, after Suriname opted to boycott the games as well.

In 2008 Suriname advanced to the group stage of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying despite using only local players. With their two-leg victory over neighbours Guyana, Suriname moved on to face Haiti, Costa Rica, and El Salvador in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF) semi-final round.

Inspired by the success of teams with dual nationals, especially Algeria, SVB president John Krishnadath submitted a proposal to the national assembly to allow dual citizenship for athletes with the then-goal of reaching the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals. In order to support this project, a team with professional players of Surinamese origin was assembled and played an exhibition match on Boxing Day 2014 at the Andre Kamperveen Stadion. The project is managed by Nordin Wooter and David Endt, who have set up a presentation and sent invitations to 100 players of Surinamese origin, receiving 85 positive answers. Dean Gorré was named to coach this special selection. FIFA is supporting the project and has granted insurance for the players and clubs despite this not being an official match.

As of May 2015, Dean Gorré was the national team coach who oversaw both the official and unofficial teams. The professional team consisted of players willing to commit to Suriname if the dual-citizenship bill was approved, and played two international matches. In 2016, Roberto Gödeken became the head coach once again. In qualification for the 2017 Caribbean Cup, Suriname secured a spot in the second round for the first time since 2012. They then qualified for the third round by being the fourth-best runner up of the second round, where they will be facing neighboring rivals Guyana and Jamaica, the latter of which they have not faced in 20 years. After a 1-0 defeat to Jamaica the chance to finally make a debut in the Gold Cup was shattered, but luckily with only a 1-0 loss Suriname can still make their debut by winning the Caribbean 5th place play-off and the CFU-UNCAF play-off. Suriname faced Trinidad & Tobago and Haïti in the 5th place play-off. Suriname won the match against Trinidad & Tobago, but lost against Haïti, because of this Suriname once again failed to make an appearance in the Concacaf Gold Cup.

FIFA World Cup