Henk ten Cate returns to the coaching profession after a year and a half. The 68-year-old coach surprisingly starts working as assistant national coach of Aron Winter at Suriname, the football association from the country reports. “I was always ready to mean something to Suriname,” says Ten Cate, whose mother is Surinamese, in the press release.
Winter has been the national coach of Suriname since September and asked the acclaimed Ten Cate for help. The technical staff is further supplemented by assistants Ryan Koolwijk, former player of Excelsior and NEC, among others, and Roberto Gödeken, a Surinamese coach. Ten Cate, who has been without an employer since his departure from Al-Wahda in October 2021, emphasizes that he is only an assistant to Winter and will fully support his game and view.
Winter says he is delighted to add Ten Cate to his coaching staff. The latter has worked as head coach in recent years, but also gained experience as an assistant coach. Ten Cate played that role at Barcelona with Frank Rijkaard and at Chelsea with Avram Grant. Between 2016 and 2021, Ten Cate was active at four different clubs from the Middle East.
The first goal for Suriname is to reach the Gold Cup next summer. On June 18 National against Puerto Rico in that context. With a win, a play-off duel follows the winner of the diptych between Martinique and Saint Lucia. The Gold Cup will take place from June 24 to July 16. After that, Suriname will focus on the qualifying series for the 2026 World Cup. The country dreams of a first participation in the world championship.