Jo Bonfrère


Johannes-Franciscus Bonfrère is a Dutch football coach and former midfielder who spent his playing career with MVV Maastricht. In a long coaching career Bonfrère managed several teams in Africa and Asia. He guided Nigeria to their victory in the 1996 Olympic Games.

Playing career

Between 1963 and 1985 Bonfrère scored 50 goals in 335 league appearances for MVV Maastricht, his only club.

Coaching career

Nigeria

Bonfrère led Nigeria national football team to the 1996 Summer Olympics gold medal in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the coach of Al Ahly in Egypt in 2002/03 where he lost the league at the very last match with a difference of two points. His contract was terminated after that.
He also led Nigeria to the 2000 African Cup of Nations co-hosted by Nigeria and Ghana. Bonfrère led the Nigerian team to the finals, where they lost to Cameroon by penalties.
On June 7th 2018, Jo was offered a 3 bedroom apartment by the Nigerian government as part of the promise made by late General Sanni Abacha after winning the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics for Nigeria.

Asia and South Korea

He was hired to coach the South Korea national football team in June 2004 to replace Humberto Coelho, who was forced to quit after a draw with the Maldives national football team in a FIFA World Cup qualification. The Dutch coach got off to a promising start by crushing a highly rated German squad of World Cup stars such as Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn, 3-1, with a young Korean team in a friendly match in December 2004. In 2005, South Korea qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup under him, but a string of disappointing losses thereafter fueled fan and media ire against Bonfrère. He resigned on 23 August that year after poor results in the East Asian Football Championship and a World Cup qualifier loss against Saudi Arabia. Korea Football Association then hired Dick Advocaat as its third Dutch coach, and Advocaat angered his predecessor by saying he will be another Guus Hiddink, not Bonfrère.
Bonfrère joined former Chinese Super League champions Dalian Shide on a one-year contract in the 2007 league season. Despite the team finishing fifth in the league, they were never in contention to win the title and opted not to extend his contract. On 29 June 2011, another Chinese Super League club Henan Construction announced that Bonfrère would lead the team on a 1+1 contract and fight for staying in the Super League.
In February 2015, Bonfrère was added to the MVV youth team staff.
On 25 May 2017, China League One club Baoding Yingli Yitong F.C. signed a one-year contract with Bonfrère.