Whereas solely six of the 16 groups had a feminine coach on the European Championship, this time there are a minimum of seven feminine head coaches on the event in Switzerland: for Wales, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, Norway, England, and Belgium. That is nonetheless not half, however a minimum of it is a small step.
In fact, in the case of feminine nationwide coaches, the identify that involves thoughts for many is England’s Sarina Wiegmann. With the Netherlands and most just lately with England, she has achieved success after success. However Wiegmann has gotten some promising competitors from the brand new nationwide coaches. Three coaches we must always preserve a particular eye on are Spain’s Montse Tomé, Pia Sundhage in Switzerland, and Rhian Wilkinson for Wales.
Spain: Montse Tomé
At the beginning, Tomé, who was already an assistant coach when Spain received the World Cup title in 2023. After that, she took over as the primary lady to educate the Spanish nationwide group and continued the profitable streak. Beneath her management, Spain received the primary UEFA Nations League for girls and reached the semifinals on the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Now she desires to proceed the profitable streak with the group.
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However earlier than it began, she needed to clean out the waves round her squad first. As a result of in her 23-player squad, World Cup star Jenni Hermoso is lacking. She had distanced herself from the nationwide group, Tomé had not nominated her. The subject had made headlines, however needs to be ticked off at the beginning of the EM. At the very least the 43-year-old has a number of different well-known gamers within the squad.
The nationwide coach was fairly profitable as a participant herself, however by no means received the actually large titles. Solely with Levante did she win the league title, with the nationwide group she reached the U18 last in 2000. After a couple of appearances within the A-team, she ended her lively profession in 2012 and labored as a sports activities trainer.
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On the identical time, she pursued her profession as a coach, took a course and met Jorge Vilda there, who made her his assistant with the nationwide group in 2018. In 2019 and 2020, she was additionally the top coach of the ladies’s U19 in Spain.
Wales: Rhian Wilkinson
As a participant, Wilkinson has much more expertise than Tomé. Between 2003 and 2017, she performed for the Canadian nationwide group and received the Olympic bronze medal. Her father was additionally a Canadian nationwide participant, however in rugby. In Canada, she performed for Ottawa Fury, Boston Breakers, or Portland Thorns, and in addition performed in Norway. In 2017, she lastly ended her lively taking part in profession and switched to teaching.
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Wilkinson coached the U17 and U20 in Canada after which moved to the nationwide group’s teaching workers. In 2021, she was lastly the co-coach of the British group and traveled with the group to the Olympics, earlier than taking up as head coach of the Portland Thorns and main the group to the championship title within the NWSL in 2022.
In 2024, she was introduced as the top coach of the Welsh girls’s nationwide group, the place Wilkinson now has a three-year contract. With this place, the 43-year-old returns to her mom Shan’s nation of beginning, the place she lived in Cowbridge in south Wales as a baby for a 12 months. With the nationwide group, she achieved a historic success: Wales certified for a European Championship for the primary time.
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The challenges that observe are nice. Wilkinson symbolized these in her first coaching camp with Wales via a photograph of Yr Wyddfa, the best mountain within the nation. And she or he climbed up there to announce her squad for the EM. The media needed to go this fashion along with her.
Switzerland: Pia Sundhage
A particular stress shall be on Pia Sundhage. That she will deal with stress and obtain success from it, the 65-year-old Swede has confirmed a number of occasions in her spectacular profession. Each as a participant and as a coach, Sundhage has been very profitable. She performed 146 video games for the Swedish nationwide group and scored 75 objectives, grew to become European champion with Sweden, and received quite a few titles and cups within the Swedish league.
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After gaining expertise as a player-coach, Sundhage lastly switched sides fully. Since then, a substantial checklist of teaching positions has been crammed. On the membership stage, she took her first place as head coach at Boston Breakers in 2003 and was named Coach of the 12 months in her final season. She then moved to the Norwegian membership Kolbotn and later to Örebro in her Swedish homeland.
Sundhage has additionally been round lots with nationwide groups and has gained expertise all around the world. She was an assistant coach in Sweden, the USA, and China, and as a head coach, she received two Olympic gold medals with the USA, Olympic silver with Sweden, and the Copa Americana Femenina with Brazil. In 2024, she was lastly appointed nationwide coach of Switzerland.
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The joy was nice when she took over the place. However success has not materialized but. Switzerland has been with no win in eight video games. The stress just isn’t solely on the coach, however on the entire group. Earlier than Sundhage named her squad, she held a type of casting at two coaching camps to see who may stand up to the stress.
After that, criticism was loud that she had finalized the squad too late. Moreover, some gamers are stated to have complained that Sundhage trains too laborious and does not take accidents into consideration. The opening match towards Sweden on the primary matchday will present whether or not the criticism is justified or if Sundhage can proceed to realize success.
This text was translated into English by Synthetic Intelligence.
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