Dutch football legend Ruud Gullit has signed up as manager of Chechen club Terek Grozny. It’s a move back into management for the 48-year-old former Holland captain three years after being fired by Los Angeles Galaxy.

Ruins
So what has prompted the former World Soccer Player of the Year to move to the troubled North Caucasus region? Reports in the Dutch press suggest Gullit didn’t rush into the decision. Apparently he was briefed extensively on the volatile area’s violent past and its uncertain future.

Experts must have told him about the wars that ravaged the Russian republic before and after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. About the two vicious independence wars that left the capital Grozny in ruins. And about the way the city’s club, Terek Grozny, a source of great national pride, became embroiled in the violence.

Stadium bombing
Formed a year after the end of World War II in 1946, the club was forced to disband in the mid-1990s due to the flare-up of fighting. Terek re-emerged in 2000 and, to everyone’s surprise, rose from the depths of the lower leagues to win the Russian Cup four years later.

This astonishing feat came on the heels of a bomb attack at the club’s Dynamo Stadium, which killed the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader and Terek owner Akhmad Kadyrov. The mastermind of the bombing later turned out to be Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, who had been head of the Chechen Football Association just a few years earlier. Rumours have it that Terek’s road to victory in the 2004 Russian Cup was part of an attempt by Moscow to defuse the explosive situation in the breakaway republic.

Reconstruction
Political motives also lie behind the move to get Gullit to Grozny. Apparently the initiative came from the current president, Ramzan Kadyrov, son of the assassinated former leader. He too has the support of Russia and has been credited for bringing a measure of peace and stability to the region.

Pockets of resistance have remained though, and the president has come under heavy criticism from the West - and even at times from Russia - for his human rights violations and tough crackdown on opposition.

Mr Kadyrov has channeled billions of federal rubles into an unprecedented drive to rebuild the ruined Chechen capital. The rapid pace of reconstruction won Russia a major UN development award last year.

Good for Grozny – and Gullit
Development and stability are the prime objectives of the authorities in both Grozny and Moscow. And it’s here that Gullit, the man who coined the phrase “sexy football”, comes in. The former manager of Chelsea, Newcastle United and Feyenoord has recently been occupying himself mainly as a pundit for satellite TV channels like Sky Sports and Al Jazeera Sports, as well as heading up the unsuccessful Holland/Belgium 2018 World Cup bid.

It’s hoped his return to management will boost Terek Grozny, which has been in the Russian Premier League for two seasons and finished 12th twice. A top eight place for the club this season would boost national pride, political stability, and the prestige of both the president and the Dutch coach.

Leaving a legacy
It would be a welcome reversal of fortunes for Gullit, whose coaching performance has been far less successful than his playing career. At Terek, he’ll find a club without great names, but full of potential, playing an athletic type of football which could well be molded into something sexier.

But the Dutchman’s move might also have been prompted by idealistic motives, by a genuine urge to improve the plight of people. When he was named the world’s best player in 1987, he dedicated the award to the then imprisoned Nelson Mandela. He later met the South African President several times and, in 2007, he visited Robben Island and spoke to three of Mandela’s former cell mates.

Gullit is one of those players who’d like to leave a legacy, not only to the game, but also off the football field.