Suriname are on the brink of something extraordinary. Beat El Salvador this week and they will take a big step towards World Cup qualification and could yet become the lowest-ranked team to achieve that feat since such rankings were invented.
North Korea were ranked 105 going into the 2010 World Cup. Suriname are ranked 126 in the world but are climbing. This nation of a little over 600,000 people – only Iceland among nations to have played at a World Cup has a smaller population – is on the up.
Brian Tevreden, Suriname’s general manager, can only smile when asked what all this means to the people. “It is like a fairytale,” he tells Sky Sports. “Everywhere you go people are talking about it. You feel the excitement, the pressure, the tension in the air.”
He adds: “Tickets for the El Salvador game sold out in 30 minutes. Imagine if we qualified for a World Cup? That would be crazy. The country would shut down for a whole month. But it is an exciting time for the country. Everything is falling into place.”
Four years ago, when Tevreden, the former director of football at Reading, took the reins, such a rise was unthinkable. “Nobody could have imagined it,” he admits. “We did not even have the proper balls for training.” He remembers one of those early sessions.
“I started laughing and I was like, ‘Bloody hell, this will be a long project.'” The man he was talking to back then was Stanley Menzo, the team’s head coach, now back for a second spell in charge. The former Ajax goalkeeper is a legendary figure in Suriname.
Suriname’s head coach Stanley Menzo is a legendary figure from his days at Ajax
Identified by Johan Cruyff as a goalkeeper capable of playing out from the back, Menzo is credited as one of the key figures in shaping modern goalkeeping. But this could be an even greater legacy. “It was really important to bring him back,” says Tevreden.
“He is a little bit older, although he does not like it when I say that, and he has a good relationship with the boys.” Indeed, defender Shaquille Pinas talks of “becoming like his sons” and wanting to fight for the cause, evident in their impressive results so far.
The win away to El Salvador set them on this path. A stoppage-time equaliser against Guatemala was vital. “I looked around the whole stadium, saw people from different cultures holding each other, cheering together,” recalls Tevreden. “People were crying.”
It took a 96th-minute equaliser to deny them victory away to Panama last time out but they still top the group with two to play. “I reminded Stan of that first training session when we were disappointed with a draw against Panama. Look how far we have come.”
Suriname’s second goal goes in during their win over El Salvador in September
The big question, of course, is how have they done it? The key to unlocking their potential stems from a FIFA rule change. Football’s governing body altered its eligibility criteria, now allowing ‘sport passports’ to Dutch-born players of Surinamese descent.
Fifty years on from Suriname gaining independence from the Netherlands, it has opened up possibilities. This nation on South America’s Caribbean coast has long produced talent with some of the Netherlands’ greatest players having their roots there.
As well as Menzo, Ruud Gullit, Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids are all of Surinamese heritage. Even now, the Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk is of Surinamese descent through his mother. The challenge for Tevreden was to persuade more players to come.
It was not easy. A decade ago, Suriname was ranked 191 out of the 209 teams ranked by FIFA. Their reputation was in the toilet. “Players did not want to come because they had heard the stories,” Tevreden concedes. They started to rehabilitate that reputation.
“People told me, ‘Brian, you’re going to screw your name up.’ But I had a vision. We had to make a change in mentality and in professionalism. The hotel needs to be good, the food needs to be good.” A lot of time, money and effort went into player identification.
“We have a database with a lot of players. I have a whole recruitment team and we are working with a data company too.” They are discovering new players all the time, Tevreden, a former player himself, having to become an administrator and a salesman.
“We did a lot of presentations in Holland. It is not just the player. You have to convince the manager, the wife, other people. They started believing in it. We brought in two or three younger players and they started telling the others.” Positive experiences shared.
“One player told me that if he had known how good it was he would have come years ago. That was a good feeling. At first, managers were telling players they could not play for us. Now, managers call me about players.” The prospect of a World Cup can do that.
Netherlands-born Suriname midfielder Justin Lonwijk celebrates a goal
Now, Sheraldo Becker is in the squad, the former Union Berlin and Real Sociedad forward. Like, Huddersfield defender Radinio Balker and the midfielder Dhoraso Klas – the two scorers in the away win over El Salvador – Becker was born in Amsterdam.
It still presents challenges. Not everyone in Suriname is thrilled by the influx of these players from the Netherlands. “The media were not happy with it. There was massive resistance.” Local pride made it awkward for Tevreden to introduce ideas from Europe.
“In the beginning, they were like, ‘We have been here 30 years, what can you explain to us?’ But as is often the case in football, results help to shape the narrative. More and more people are appreciating the transformation. Tevreden wants to build something.
“We have one member of staff from Holland and one from Suriname in every department. We need someone local so they gain this knowledge and develop themselves. It is about education and giving back, creating something sustainable.”
For the Dutch-born contingent, they too are enriched by connecting with their roots, none more so than Tevreden whose mother, a Suriname native, died of cancer two years ago. He still checks his phone every time he arrives in Paramaribo, the country’s capital.
“When I landed I used to get a call or a text from my mom asking if I was safe.” The emotions are still raw. “It is a hell of a thing.” But he is heartened at the thought of how proud she would be feeling now. “She always told me to follow my dreams,” he explains.
“I told her that the World Cup in 2026 was my dream. She said to me, ‘You’re going to make it.'” Now, they are just two games away from proving her right. “Nobody gave Suriname a chance,” he adds, reflectively. “But we have to do this now. It is our time.”
