Chelsea women’s manager Emma Hayes has been confirmed as the next full-time head coach of the United States women’s national team. The US Soccer Federation announced her appointment on Tuesday, November 14.
While she will not join the USWNT until two months before the 2024 Paris Olympics, Hayes is well aware of the challenges that lie ahead: “The realities are, it is going to be very, very difficult for the US to climb back to the top,” she wrote in her World Cup column for Telegraph Sport in August after the US suffered its worst Women’s World Cup finish – a round of 16 exit.
Hayes is relishing the chance to lead the comeback of the most successful Women’s World Cup team after she steps down as Chelsea head coach in May 2024:
“This is a huge honour to be given the opportunity to coach the most incredible team in world football history,” Hayes said in a news release. “The feelings and connection I have for this team and for this country run deep.
“I’ve dreamed about coaching the USA for a long time so to get this opportunity is a dream come true. I know there is work to do to achieve our goals of winning consistently at the highest levels. To get there, it will require dedication, devotion and collaboration from the players, staff and everyone at the U.S. Soccer Federation.”
HIGHEST-PAID WOMEN’S FOOTBALL COACH
The US Soccer said in its announcement that Hayes will become the highest-paid women’s football coach in the world.
A source told ESPN that “her salary will be ‘close if not equal’ to that of US men’s national team manager Gregg Berhalter, who makes $1.6 million. Bonuses will have an impact on what both managers will ultimately earn.”
SUCCESS AT CHELSEA
Since joining Chelsea in August 2012, Hayes has won six Women’s Super League titles, one WSL Spring Series title, five Women’s FA Cups and two FA Women’s League Cups.
In addition, Chelsea made the UEFA Women’s Champions League Final in 2021, losing to Barcelona and Hayes, a member of the Women’s Super League Hall of Fame, was named The Best FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year for 2021.
Chelsea already revealed that Hayes would be leaving at the end of the 2023-24 season to “pursue a new opportunity outside the WSL and club football”.
INTERIM HEAD COACH
Until Hayes officially takes up her new post, Twila Kilgore will continue as the interim head coach of the USWNT and then join Hayes’ staff full-time as an assistant coach.
Kilgore has been coaching the team since Vlatko Andonovski resigned in August after the USA’s poor 2023 World Cup showing culminated in a round of 16 defeat to Sweden.
Hayes will begin her tenure with four matches – two in June and two in July – to prepare the USWNT for the Paris 2024 summer Olympic Games.
NATURAL FIT
“Emma is a fantastic leader and world class coach who sets high standards for herself and for everyone around her,” said US Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone.
“She has tremendous energy and an insatiable will to win. Her experience in the USA, her understanding of our soccer landscape and her appreciation of what it means to coach this team makes her a natural fit for this role and we could not be more pleased to have her leading our Women’s National Team forward.”
PREVIOUS STINTS IN THE US
Back in 2001, Hayes, who grew up in London, coached at the youth levels in the USA prior to landing her first head coaching job with the Long Island Lady Riders in the USL W-League from 2001-2003.
She was the youngest female head coach in the league and was named W-League Coach of the year in 2002. After the Lady Riders, Hayes also enjoyed a successful spell coaching Division I college soccer at Iona College for four years before returning to the UK where she became an assistant first team coach at Arsenal Ladies.
Hayes returned to the United States in 2008 and coached the Chicago Red Stars during the start of Women’s Professional Soccer, the second iteration of a pro league in the United States. She also had stints working as a coaching consultant for the Washington Freedom and as the technical director at the New York Flash.
Interestingly, it was Hayes who, before her first WPS season, chose Megan Rapinoe with the second overall pick in the league’s inaugural draft. And the young attacking player from the University of Portland would become a legend of the the USWNT.
TRANSITION
Icons such as Rapinoe, Ali Krieger and Julie Ertz have retired and it seems the new generation is yet to find its footing. The USWNT is going through a transitional period and Hayes has observed some of its shortcomings.
“It is not just about this team or this coach,” she wrote in August. “For the US, there needs to be a bigger conversation about their collegiate system and youth development as well as the NWSL.”
UNDERSTANDING THE PEOPLE AND CULTURE
Hayes is the second England-born coach to head the US Women’s National Team, after Jill Ellis, who spent the entirety of her coaching career in the United States.
“I understand how important this team is to the people and culture of the United States, not just the soccer community,” said Hayes.
“I fully understand the place this team has in U.S. society. I’ve lived it. I remember being a young coach working my way up through the system in the U.S. and watching all those young girls aspire to play on the U.S. Women’s National Team. For me, the honor in building on that legacy is part of my motivation, no question.”
Credit: AIPS Media
Related
You must be logged in to post a comment.