The Dutch royal family experienced a remarkable World Cup Saturday, watching two separate nations claim victories on the same extraordinary day.
King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Princess Ariane attended a noon kick-off in Houston, watching the Netherlands demolish Sweden with a commanding 5-1 victory.
The royals then made an 800-mile journey north to Kansas City to watch Curacao earn their first ever World Cup point against Ecuador.
Despite being separated by around 5,000 miles in real life, the Netherlands and Curacao were brought together through the global spectacle of the World Cup.
Curacao, a small Caribbean island with a population of just 158,000, remains part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to this day.
All but one member of the Curacao squad was born in the Netherlands, giving the royal party a deeply personal connection to both sides on the pitch.
The royal family rounded off their incredible day by celebrating with the Curacao players inside the dressing room after the historic result against Ecuador.
King Willem-Alexander spoke warmly about the unique experience, telling RTL-TV: “It is an extra-special World Cup because we have both the Netherlands and Curacao.”
“So we have twice as many teams to cheer for. It’s a great opportunity to cheer on both the Blues and the Oranges,” he added.
He continued: “All in all, it will be a special World Cup for me with two teams, and I naturally hope they go extremely far.”
Queen Maxima, who is originally from Argentina, could potentially attend Argentina’s match against Austria in Arlington, Texas on Monday.
The historical ties between the Netherlands and Curacao stretch back to the 17th century, when the Dutch conquered large swathes of territory across the Caribbean, Indonesia, South Africa and West Papua.
Thousands of people were trafficked from Africa to Dutch colonies in the Caribbean and South America, accounting for around five percent of the entire transatlantic slave trade before abolition in 1863.
King Willem-Alexander formally apologised for the Netherlands’ role in the slave trade in 2023, stating he felt “personally and intensely” affected by that chapter of his country’s history.
