England’s Sarina Wiegman is the lone female head coach remaining at the Women’s World Cup after the elimination of South Africa on Sunday, which could bode well for the Lionesses if history is anything to go by.
Twelve of the World Cup’s 32 head coaches were women, including Desiree Ellis, whose Banyana Banyana lost 2-0 to the Netherlands in the round of 16.
Women have, however, been very successful on the global soccer stage. Since 2000, all but one of the major women’s soccer tournaments – the World Cup, European Championship and the Olympics – have been won by female-coached teams, according to the Female Coaching Network.
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Norio Sasaki, the man who coached Japan to Women’s World Cup glory in 2011, is the sole exception.
“It’s not a competition of being a female coach,” Wiegman said on the eve of England’s round-of-16 game against Nigeria.
“But of course what we hope is that balance gets right in the future and we are all working on that, at least in England and other countries too to get opportunities, to get more women in the game.
“And, of course, I had hoped that more female coaches would still be in the tournament.”
Wiegman, whose European champion plays Nigeria on Monday, took over as Lionesses head coach in September 2021, guiding her team to a 30-game unbeaten streak including only five draws. That run ended in a 2-0 loss to Australia in a friendly in April but England are unbeaten in their five matches since.
Two women coaches were ousted in the round of 16 on Saturday with Switzerland’s 5-1 loss to Spain (Inka Grings) and Norway’s 3-1 defeat by Japan (Hege Riise).
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