Bartina Koeman, the wife of former Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman, has died at the age of 65.
Ronald Koeman announced the news on Instagram on Tuesday, saying that he and his family were saying goodbye to his wife “with immense sadness, but also with great pride and love.”
Bartina had been battling chronic breast cancer. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, and after recovering, the disease returned in 2018. In 2023, during Koeman’s second spell as manager of the Netherlands national team, doctors diagnosed her with chronic breast cancer. Last year, metastases were also discovered.
In December 2025, Koeman said in an interview with Dutch television presenter Eva Jinek that the treatments had initially been responding well.
Ronald and Bartina Koeman were married in 1985, when Ronald was still playing for Ajax. They had three children together.
Their youngest son, Ronald Koeman Jr., is a goalkeeper for Dutch Eredivisie club Telstar. He became a father for the first time last week, giving Ronald and Bartina their fourth grandchild.
In the family’s statement on Instagram, the Koemans wrote:
“With immense sadness, but also with great pride and love, we say goodbye to my beautiful wife, our dearest mother and grandmother.”
When Ronald Koeman stepped down as Netherlands manager following the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, he paid tribute to his wife for the support she had given him throughout his tenure.
“My wife Bartina, despite everything she was going through with her own illness, supported and encouraged me every single day to finish my work as national team coach,” Koeman said. “That shows incredible strength. I am more grateful to her for that than I could ever put into words.”
Bartina Koeman was one of the Netherlands’ best-known football wives for decades. Alongside her family life, she worked as an entrepreneur and launched her own cosmetics and skincare line.
She stood by Ronald Koeman throughout his distinguished playing career, which included spells at PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona and Feyenoord. As a manager, Koeman went on to coach all three of the Netherlands’ traditional top clubs and also had another spell in charge of Barcelona, in addition to managing the Dutch national team.
