Pieter Huistra

Pieter Egge Huistra (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈpitər ˈɦœystraː], born 18 January 1967) is a Dutch football coach and former winger, most recently serving as manager of De Graafschap. He is currently the Technical Director of the Indonesia national football team. Huistra played for the Scottish Premier Division club Rangers from 1990-95. He left there to play for Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the J. League. In 2001, he began coaching as the Head Coach for Jong Groningen. He was with them for four years before being named assistant coach of Aad de Mos at Vitesse. He then became an assistant coach with AFC Ajax and was named as their Head Coach on April 24, 2009. He was then the head coach of FC Groningen for the 2010–11 season. On May 30, 2012 he then became the head coach of the Eerste Divisie club De Graafschap. Finally, on December 3, 2014 he was appointed as the Technical Director of the Indonesia national football team.

Between 1990 and 1995 he played for Scottish Premier Division club Rangers, becoming the first of a number of Dutch players to play for the club, where he won five League medals, two League Cup medals and a Scottish Cup medal. He left Rangers to play for Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the J1 League.

Huistra began his coaching career in 2001 as Head Coach of Jong Groningen which he was for four years. On 1 July 2005 he left Groningen and was named as the new assistant coach of Aad de Mos at Vitesse Arnhem. After Vitesse he became an assistant coach at AFC Ajax as replacement of the injured Rob Witschge and was named as the new Jong Ajax Head Coach on 24 April 2009, he signed a contract between 30 June 2011. On January 2010, after FC Groningen coach Ron Jans announced his intention to leave the club at the end of the season, Huistra was announced as new team head coach for the 2010–11 season.

He served as head coach for two full seasons, the final one being particularly disappointing as his Groningen team failed to enter the race for a UEFA Europa League spot and instead narrowly escaped relegation by the end of the season; the seasonal outcome, well below the board aspirations, led to his dismissal on 10 May 2012.

On 30 May 2012 he was announced as new head coach of recently relegated 2012–13 Eerste Divisie club De Graafschap, with the goal to bring his new club promptly back to the top flight. He was fired on 24 December 2013, as of a lack of good results in the past weeks.

On December 3, 2014, he was appointed as the Technical Director of the Indonesia national football team.

On May 7, 2015, he was called to be the interim coach of the Indonesia National Team for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers and the Asian Cup qualifiers in 2019.