Netherlands national football team players: Xavi’s first squad, three debutants and Van Dijk’s 100 caps

Xavi Hernández named his first Netherlands squad on 18 September 2026, and the players below are the 23 he finished the October window with. Caps and goals are as they stood after the 2-1 win over Serbia in Eindhoven on 4 October. Four Nations League games in eleven days brought two wins and two draws, three debutants, Virgil van Dijk’s 100th cap, and a share of top spot in Group A2 with Greece.

The squad also has no Memphis Depay. The country’s record scorer was left out of the first list, and the numbers make the gap plain: Depay has 55 international goals, and the 23 players in this table have 57 between them.

Netherlands national football team players: the current squad

Window apps counts the four September and October games, starts and substitute appearances together. An asterisk marks a player who won his first cap in the window.

Player	Position	Club	Caps	Goals	Window apps
Bart Verbruggen	Goalkeeper	Brighton & Hove Albion	37	0	4
Mark Flekken	Goalkeeper	Bayer Leverkusen	12	0	0
Robin Roefs	Goalkeeper	Sunderland	1	0	0
Virgil van Dijk (captain)	Defender	Liverpool	100	14	4
Denzel Dumfries	Defender	Real Madrid	80	11	4
Nathan Aké	Defender	Fenerbahçe	62	5	0
Micky van de Ven	Defender	Tottenham Hotspur	28	1	4
Jurriën Timber	Defender	Arsenal	26	0	2
Jeremie Frimpong	Defender	Liverpool	15	1	0
Jorrel Hato	Defender	Chelsea	10	0	1
Tijjani Reijnders	Midfielder	Al-Qadsiah	39	8	4
Ryan Gravenberch	Midfielder	Liverpool	35	1	4
Teun Koopmeiners	Midfielder	Juventus	33	4	1
Joey Veerman	Midfielder	Borussia Dortmund	20	1	4
Quinten Timber	Midfielder	Crystal Palace	17	1	4
Guus Til	Midfielder	PSV	11	1	3
Kenneth Taylor	Midfielder	Lazio	6	0	1
Gjivai Zechiël *	Midfielder	Feyenoord	2	0	2
Noa Lang	Forward	Napoli	19	3	2
Crysencio Summerville	Forward	Al-Hilal	10	2	4
Joshua Zirkzee	Forward	Manchester United	8	2	2
Mexx Meerdink *	Forward	AZ	4	2	4
Ruben van Bommel *	Forward	PSV	4	0	4

Fifteen of the 23 were at the World Cup. The other eight are the new names: three debutants, plus Jeremie Frimpong, Jurriën Timber, Joey Veerman, Kenneth Taylor and Joshua Zirkzee, none of whom went to North America.

Without Gakpo, the top scorer is a centre-back

Cody Gakpo left the camp with an ankle injury after the win in Belgrade, and he took 25 goals with him. That leaves the squad’s scoring list looking strange. Van Dijk is top on 14. Denzel Dumfries, a right-back, is second on 11. The leading midfielder or forward is Tijjani Reijnders with eight.

That is the problem Xavi inherited in one line. Depay’s 55 sit outside the squad, Gakpo’s 25 sat in the treatment room, and the forwards he actually had in Eindhoven (Noa Lang, Crysencio Summerville, Zirkzee, Mexx Meerdink and Ruben van Bommel) started the window with six international goals between them. They finished it with nine.

How Xavi used the squad

Counting withdrawals, 29 players were named across the window. Xavi used 22 of them, for 63 appearances: 44 starts and 19 substitute outings. Five men started all four games: Bart Verbruggen, Van Dijk, Micky van de Ven, Dumfries and Summerville. Four players in the final 23 never got on at all, the reserve goalkeepers Mark Flekken and Robin Roefs, plus Nathan Aké and Frimpong.

The squad changed shape as it went. Justin Kluivert and Donyell Malen withdrew injured before a ball was kicked, and Guus Til and Meerdink were called in. Brian Brobbey went off with a hamstring problem against Germany and left, and Zirkzee, without a cap since November 2024, replaced him. Gakpo, Jan Paul van Hecke and Lutsharel Geertruida also withdrew injured during the window.

Meerdink is the one who made the most of it. The AZ striker was not in the original 26. He made his debut as a first-half substitute for Brobbey in Amsterdam, then scored a penalty and the winner on his first start in Belgrade. Van Bommel, the son of former Netherlands captain Mark van Bommel, played all four games, and Feyenoord’s Gjivai Zechiël came off the bench twice.

Results from the window

Date	Match	Venue	Dutch scorers
24 September	Netherlands 1-1 Germany	Amsterdam	Gakpo
27 September	Serbia 1-2 Netherlands	Belgrade	Meerdink 2
1 October	Greece 2-2 Netherlands	Thessaloniki	Van Dijk, Reijnders
4 October	Netherlands 2-1 Serbia	Eindhoven	Koopmeiners, Zirkzee

The pattern was late goals. Four of the seven came after the 68th minute, including Gakpo’s stoppage-time equaliser against Germany in Xavi’s first game and Reijnders’ 89th-minute leveller in Thessaloniki, where Greece led 2-0 at half-time. They went behind in two of the four games and lost neither, and Gakpo’s equaliser came from a Van Bommel cross. Our reports from Belgrade and Thessaloniki have the detail, and the preview of the Germany game covers the two new managers.

Nations League Group A2 table

Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
Netherlands	4	2	2	0	7	5	8
Greece	4	2	2	0	5	3	8
Germany	4	1	2	1	3	2	5
Serbia	4	0	0	4	3	8	0

The Netherlands and Greece are level on eight points and level on goal difference, and they drew their only meeting so far. The top two in each League A group go through to the quarter-finals in March 2027, and Serbia can no longer reach the top two. The Netherlands host Greece in Amsterdam on Friday 13 November and finish in Berlin against Germany on Monday 16 November. Both kick off at 20:45 local time, which is 1:15am IST the following morning. Germany’s squad is in our Germany players guide.

The Netherlands’ key players

Virgil van Dijk won his 100th cap against Serbia on 4 October and became the 11th Dutch man to reach the mark. He is 35, and in August he said he would think about his international future once he had spoken to the new coach. He decided to carry on, and he scored his 14th international goal with a header in Greece.

Tijjani Reijnders played in all four games, scored the equaliser in Thessaloniki and set up Zirkzee’s winner in Eindhoven. He now has eight goals in 39 caps and is the most productive midfielder in the group.

Bart Verbruggen played every minute of the window in goal and is up to 37 caps at 24. Flekken and Roefs did not get on.

Mexx Meerdink has two goals in four caps, both of them in Belgrade. He is 23 and plays his club football at AZ, one of only four Eredivisie-based players in the squad, along with Til, Van Bommel and Zechiël.

Jorrel Hato is 20 and already on ten caps, although he played only once in the window, off the bench against Serbia in Eindhoven.

Who is missing

Depay is the headline absence. He has 112 caps and 55 goals and played only as a substitute at the World Cup, and Xavi left him out of the first squad. Frenkie de Jong, who played under Xavi at Barcelona, is still out with the knee injury he picked up at the World Cup. Xavi Simons has not played for his country since March after rupturing a cruciate ligament with Tottenham in April. Marten de Roon and Wout Weghorst, both World Cup squad members, were not selected, and Mats Wieffer was injured.

What the Netherlands have won

Competition	Best result	Years
European Championship	Winners	1988
World Cup	Runners-up	1974, 1978, 2010
World Cup	Third place	2014
Nations League	Runners-up	2019

Three World Cup finals and no trophy is the line that follows this team everywhere. The 1988 European Championship, won in West Germany with Marco van Basten’s volley in the final, is still the only senior title the country has.

Quick answers

Who is the manager of the Netherlands? Xavi Hernández, appointed in August 2026 after Ronald Koeman left following the World Cup. His first game was the 1-1 draw with Germany on 24 September.

Who is the captain of the Netherlands? Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool, who reached 100 caps against Serbia on 4 October 2026.

Who is the Netherlands’ all-time top scorer? Memphis Depay, with 55 goals in 112 appearances, ahead of Robin van Persie on 50. He was not in Xavi’s first squad.

Who is the Netherlands’ most capped player? Wesley Sneijder, with 134 caps between 2003 and 2018. Edwin van der Sar is second on 130.

Have the Netherlands ever won the World Cup? No. They have lost three finals, in 1974, 1978 and 2010, and finished third in 2014.

When do the Netherlands play next? Greece at home in Amsterdam on 13 November 2026, then Germany away in Berlin on 16 November, both in the Nations League.

More squad guides in the same format: England, Spain, France, Croatia and Belgium.

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