Lessons from Sarina Wiegman: The coach who keeps redefining women’s football
England's Lionesses' manager Sarina Wiegman.
What you need to know:
- Sarina Wiegman’s fifth Women’s Coach of the Year award reflects a career built on belief, discipline and collective success. From the Netherlands to England, she has transformed teams into champions.
- Beyond trophies, Wiegman is redefining leadership in a male-dominated sport. Her emphasis on inclusion, communication and shared responsibility has reshaped women’s football culture.
England manager Sarina Wiegman has just been named women’s coach of the year at the Best Fifa Football Awards after leading the country’s women’s national team, Lionesses, to Euro 2025 victory. Wiegman took the honour for a record-extending fifth time. As a coach, she’s made a positive impact with her teams.
She’s unquestionably a top coach with a proven track record of winning major trophies in women’s football. Also, she’s a visionary, competent and confident leader with exceptional skills and excellent communication approach: honest, clear and direct. The world of football is still a male-dominated space, so she was surprised that as a woman, she was asked, a few years ago, whether she was willing to step up to become coach of the Dutch national women’s team, the Leeuwinnen.
Her book, What It Takes: My Playbook on Life and Leadership delves deep into her passions: football and working with ambitious and talented people. Football has been her passion since she was a young girl. The love she has for the game has always been a driving force for her, even during times when expressing that love was challenging.
I remember the disapproval I had to face for being a girl playing a supposedly boy’s game, and cutting my hair short as a young player so I wouldn’t stand out as much on the boys’ team I played for. She inspires girls and women to make football their career, in whatever role.
As she remarks in the book, things have definitely improved since she was obliged to play football with boys when she was younger, but there’s still a long was to go. Things are moving forward, but equal opportunities have still not been achieved.
She hopes that her book can help change that. And that every woman who wants to play or coach football should have a chance to show her talent. “I understand how important it is for young girls and women to have role models and feel confident, and I hope my experiences can pave the way for their growth” writes Sarina.
Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond took a chance and appointed her, in the run-up to a significant tournament: Euro 2017. The team’s chances of becoming European champions were slim, but Sarina encouraged the players to go for the slim chance. To everyone’s surprise the team won the title- crowned European champions.
“We successfully created a football spectacle with the Netherlands. The odds of becoming champions had seemed so slim, but our belief grew stronger with each game” says Sarina.
Not many people believed the team could become European champions, but the team proved them wrong. They won the tournament. They came out of nowhere and won Euros. And they didn’t stop there. Together with the coaching staff, Sarina set a goal with the players to ensure they weren’t just one hit wonders.
The team secured a spot in the 2019 World Cup and became runners-up. Reached the quarter finals at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. In August 2020 Sarina was appointed the head coach of the Lionesses - England’s women national team, which she joined with a burning desire to elevate their game to the next level.
Sarina does not focus only on winning but there is a way she wants to win. And she’s straightforward about her expectations and what she wants. She demands 100 per cent from her players, as well as from herself and her staff. The England women’s national team coach says the job demands a lot from her. As she puts it, there are no days off when you have this responsibility, and you are always in the spotlight.
As the Football Association of Women’s Football, Baroness Sue Campbell notes, Sarina possesses a unique combination of a winner’s mentality and a deep desire to succeed, while also understanding that it takes team effort to achieve success. Equally important, she takes great pleasure in bringing out the best in her players. “Sarina isn’t someone who craves the spotlight; she derives great joy from the growth and development of others.” says Campbell “I knew that we had made the right choice.
In 2022, she led the England team to beat Germany in extra-time in the final and became European champions. In 2023 Lionesses qualified for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Even though she was usually the focus of attention because of all games her team won, she always switched the focus to the team. She refused to take all the credit for herself and always said it was because of the team.
The promotion of equal opportunities for everyone in sport is something she holds dear. This goes beyond simply improving opportunities for women and girls in football, as is highlighted by the book. She strongly believes in the power of diversity and inclusion in teams. She has committed herself fully to creating an environment in which all top athletes and staff have the same opportunities, regardless of their background, culture, gender identity, sexual preference and religion.
Her dream is to see equal opportunities for everyone in the sport she adores. One of her important messages centres around achieving equal rights for women in sports and removing barriers that restrict girls and women from participating in football.
Tremendous growth
Indeed, interest in women’s football has grown tremendously, with girls and women across England, Netherlands and now Australia, and other parts of the world wanting to play. There is progress in England, Netherlands and around the world, but more needs to be done, breaking down barriers that keep people from playing.
As she says, and it is true, there are still too many obstacles preventing girls and women from having better opportunities in football. As Lionnesses assistant coach, Geraint Twose remarks, “Sarina is the type of a leader you want to follow because she’s inspiring, not only with regards to football but also in how she works with people.”
