Latest news with #BrianSorensen
BBC News
12 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Everton's Gago pens three-year contract extension
France forward Kelly Gago has signed a three-year contract extension with Everton, keeping her at the club until June 26, joined the Toffees in January from Nantes and scored five goals and registered two assists during the second half of her side's Women's Super League said the club's owners' ambitions align with her "personal aspirations" and she wants to keep testing herself in the "best league in the world"."I want to get on the scoresheet as many times as possible and help the team achieve its goals," she said. "I am really excited by the project that we are building and have had positive talks with Brian [Sorensen] about the future of this club."Manager Brian Sorensen added that she was a "big part" of his plans for next said: "She enjoyed an impressive first few months at the club and fast became a popular figure in the changing room and also among supporters."I'm sure she will make our first campaign in our new home a memorable one."
BBC News
23-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Spain's Ornella Vignola set for medical at Everton
Everton are close to agreeing a move for Spain youth international Ornella Vignola from 20-year-old winger is due in Merseyside for a medical this week and is expected to complete the Sorensen's side are set to be busy this summer with a number of target identified following investment from new takeover company The Friedkin Group.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
A new home for Everton Women, all summer targets signed: ‘We have something here'
May 18, 2025. Everton Women manager Brian Sorensen exists in two universes. There is Sorensen Redacted, the version disseminated on Everton's socials. The Danish manager standing in the epicentre of the Goodbye Goodison Park celebrations, accepting the pressure and privilege of making the storied stadium his side's new home. Advertisement Then there is Sorensen Unfiltered or, as Sorensen sees it and those close to the head coach attest, 'just me, Brian'. The man who declared in front of 40,000 or so weepy-eyed Evertonians that 'it's big shoes to fill, but we already made Anfield our training pitch. So we're looking forward to it'. Everton Women have won their four matches at Anfield since 2019 by an aggregate score of 7-1, after all. Amid the bittersweet blue pyro of Goodison's farewell, Sorensen wore a mischievous grin. He winked. The crowd cheered. Three weeks later, in a small office at the top of the Liver Building in which Everton have their headquarters, vestiges of that mischief dance across Sorensen's face when this moment is recalled. 'I don't think about whether I can say something, if I'm successful enough to say it. I just enjoy the ride,' says Sorensen. So, he's enjoying it? A flash of a grin. Advertisement 'The first question I used to get in an interview with an agent and a potential player is: 'Are the men('s team) still going to be supporting you?'. Now, I don't get those questions. Because action speaks louder than words.' Sorensen reclines in an office chair, fresh off the final day of his League Managers Association management diploma. Sporting a retro cream Everton hoodie and bright blue and yellow Nikes, he oozes dangerous levels of zen. 'My last assignment was due on Thursday, I was doing it Wednesday night,' he says. This is not so much procrastination as an example of Sorensen's innate calm, born out of his upbringing in Arden, Denmark. The small railway town was home to his very large family. From the time he was born until Sorensen was 15, days were spent on his grandmother's farm, alongside a rotating compilation of his father's seven siblings and Sorensen's 36 cousins. 'We didn't buy anything from the store,' says Sorensen, who is an adept carpenter like his father and builds climbing frames for his six-year-old daughter, Rose, in their back yard in the south of Liverpool. 'We did everything, built everything, grew everything, we had all types of animals. So you couldn't take things too seriously or dwell too much because we need to put food on the table. Advertisement 'My wife (Camilla) sometimes kills me because things that don't affect me or I can't affect, I'm like, 'Why stress about them? It'll all work out, you know?'. 'I really, hate micromanagement,' he adds. Autonomy, instead, is his currency, a lesson gleaned from his grandmother. 'She's my role model. How she could control 20 kids at one time, on a farm, I have no idea. You give people the tools but trust them to use them right.' Since April 2022, when Sorensen joined Everton from Denmark's Fortuna Hjorring, the past three seasons have turned on savvy survival. Annual squad budgets ranged between £3million and £4m ($4m and $5.4m) due to the club's wider financial plight. Injury crises across Sorensen's first two seasons exacerbated an already gossamer-thin squad. Everton's budget for the start of 2024-25 ranked the lowest in the Women's Super League (WSL), with all seven summer recruits arriving on free transfers. That Everton kept well away from any potential relegation wreckage in all three seasons under Sorensen (they've finished sixth, eighth and eighth) is a testament to the Dane's capacity to build from very little. Advertisement 'All the players we've recruited have done super well for us, they're good people,' he says, 'but I had to play people out of position because I had to take the good players who were available, waiting for clubs to announce their released lists. That's where we've struggled all these years. I had no budget.' This summer, things are different. The WSL summer transfer window does not officially open until June 18 but six new signings have already committed to Everton, with a possible two more to follow. As we speak, an international player, whom Sorensen says he had been attempting to recruit since last October, waits in a room across the hall, ready to put pen to paper. This has been the speed of operation since the Friedkin Group's (TFG) takeover in January. That same month, Everton completed the permanent signings of midfielder Hayley Ladd and striker Kelly Gago from Manchester United and Nantes, along with three loan moves. For the first time in nearly 12 months, Sorensen had a full bench. In April, Sorensen and his assistant manager, Stephen Neligan, signed new contracts, followed by new deals for defenders Kenzie Weir and Clare Wheeler. The following month, Everton confirmed the women's team's historic move to Goodison Park, leaving behind Walton Hall Park, along with the appointment of Hannah Forshaw as chief executive of Everton Women. 'Active' is how Sorensen describes the period. Which feels something of an understatement. Advertisement 'For the first time since I've been here, I got all of my targets,' he adds. 'That's never happened before because we're not in the top of the ranking order.' Sorensen assembles his hands to form a food chain. 'There's Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United, then the powerhouses in Spain, France and Germany, then some Italian teams because they pay more.' He drops his hand lower. 'Then there's us.' Under TFG, the ambition is to reposition Everton into the top echelon, as well as be a landing spot for England internationals. No English club was represented in Sarina Wiegman's England Euro 2025 squad outside the top four (although Arsenal forward Michelle Agyemang was included after a season on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion). Only six Everton players from last season regularly started for their international teams. Sorensen has faith the shift will occur sooner rather than later. He tells the story of TFG's first meeting at Finch Farm in January in front of the club's entire staff and playing teams. 'The first thing they said was they want to support the women's team,' Sorensen says. 'Then they began speaking about the men's team, the academy, so on. That was the first sign of, 'OK, they actually want to support us, they're taking it seriously'.' Advertisement The move to Goodison has been a catalyst — for recruitment but also commercial opportunities. 'Thousands of people (at Goodison on May 18) had probably never watched Everton Women,' Sorensen says. Now? Gates of 10,000 is the ambition, roughly five times the average attendance (2,000) Everton clocked during the 2023-24 season, the second lowest in the WSL. The limitations of Walton Hall Park — 2,200 capacity (half that under a roof) and council ownership meant little could be done to enhance the matchday experience — take some blame. Another avenue for revenue generation is selling shares in Everton Women to investors, similar to Alexis Ohanian's minority stake in Chelsea Women. 'I look at Angel City or Kansas City (in NWSL), the valuation they built from scratch,' Sorensen says. 'We have the best league in the world. If people can understand and see the growth, if they have the American mindset that this is something you should invest in now rather than later, then I don't see why it's not possible to do that in this country.' Or at Everton. 'We have something here,' Sorensen says, reeling off a list: the country's 'best stadium'. A clear playing style. Last season's fifth-best defence in the WSL, despite having a rotating cast that included six different centre-back partnerships, five right-backs and three left-backs. Advertisement Sorensen also knows the value of the collective. His family lived within 15 miles of each other, all skilled tradespeople: plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers. 'The whole family would go over to one sibling's house, do it up in two months, then go to the next one,' he says. Sorensen's recruitment doctrine has roots here, valuing people and teamwork skills above all else, sounding out the opinions of players over those of agents for character references. With most recruitment work finished, Sorensen's summer plans are relaxed. In late May, he travelled back to Denmark with Camilla, their six-week-old son, Milas, and Rose, the latter spending her days on the tractor with her grandad, navigating the fields Sorensen grew up on. Now back in Liverpool, there's a new garden to build, a workout gym for himself and his wife. 'I need to get fit,' he quips. He's already constructed an outdoor gymnastics setup for his daughter, fit with climbing walls, monkey bars, a rubber floor and a television so she can stream practice videos. 'She walks more on her hands than her legs nowadays.' Advertisement This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Everton, UK Women's Football 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
09-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
A new home for Everton Women, all summer targets signed: ‘We have something here'
May 18, 2025. Everton Women manager Brian Sorensen exists in two universes. There is Sorensen Redacted, the version disseminated on Everton's socials. The Danish manager standing in the epicentre of the Goodbye Goodison Park celebrations, accepting the pressure and privilege of making the storied stadium his side's new home. Advertisement Then there is Sorensen Unfiltered or, as Sorensen sees it and those close to the head coach attest, 'just me, Brian'. The man who declared in front of 40,000 or so weepy-eyed Evertonians that 'it's big shoes to fill, but we already made Anfield our training pitch. So we're looking forward to it'. Everton Women have won their four matches at Anfield since 2019 by an aggregate score of 7-1, after all. Amid the bittersweet blue pyro of Goodison's farewell, Sorensen wore a mischievous grin. He winked. The crowd cheered. Three weeks later, in a small office at the top of the Liver Building in which Everton have their headquarters, vestiges of that mischief dance across Sorensen's face when this moment is recalled. 'I don't think about whether I can say something, if I'm successful enough to say it. I just enjoy the ride,' says Sorensen. So, he's enjoying it? A flash of a grin. 'The first question I used to get in an interview with an agent and a potential player is: 'Are the men('s team) still going to be supporting you?'. Now, I don't get those questions. Because action speaks louder than words.' Sorensen reclines in an office chair, fresh off the final day of his League Managers Association management diploma. Sporting a retro cream Everton hoodie and bright blue and yellow Nikes, he oozes dangerous levels of zen. 'My last assignment was due on Thursday, I was doing it Wednesday night,' he says. This is not so much procrastination as an example of Sorensen's innate calm, born out of his upbringing in Arden, Denmark. The small railway town was home to his very large family. From the time he was born until Sorensen was 15, days were spent on his grandmother's farm, alongside a rotating compilation of his father's seven siblings and Sorensen's 36 cousins. 'We didn't buy anything from the store,' says Sorensen, who is an adept carpenter like his father and builds climbing frames for his six-year-old daughter, Rose, in their back yard in the south of Liverpool. 'We did everything, built everything, grew everything, we had all types of animals. So you couldn't take things too seriously or dwell too much because we need to put food on the table. Advertisement 'My wife (Camilla) sometimes kills me because things that don't affect me or I can't affect, I'm like, 'Why stress about them? It'll all work out, you know?'. 'I really, really hate micromanagement,' he adds. Autonomy, instead, is his currency, a lesson gleaned from his grandmother. 'She's my role model. How she could control 20 kids at one time, on a farm, I have no idea. You give people the tools but trust them to use them right.' Since April 2022, when Sorensen joined Everton from Denmark's Fortuna Hjorring, the past three seasons have turned on savvy survival. Annual squad budgets ranged between £3million and £4m ($4m and $5.4m) due to the club's wider financial plight. Injury crises across Sorensen's first two seasons exacerbated an already gossamer-thin squad. Everton's budget for the start of 2024-25 ranked the lowest in the Women's Super League (WSL), with all seven summer recruits arriving on free transfers. That Everton kept well away from any potential relegation wreckage in all three seasons under Sorensen (they've finished sixth, eighth and eighth) is a testament to the Dane's capacity to build from very little. 'All the players we've recruited have done super well for us, they're good people,' he says, 'but I had to play people out of position because I had to take the good players who were available, waiting for clubs to announce their released lists. That's where we've struggled all these years. I had no budget.' This summer, things are different. The WSL summer transfer window does not officially open until June 18 but six new signings have already committed to Everton, with a possible two more to follow. As we speak, an international player, whom Sorensen says he had been attempting to recruit since last October, waits in a room across the hall, ready to put pen to paper. Advertisement This has been the speed of operation since the Friedkin Group's (TFG) takeover in January. That same month, Everton completed the permanent signings of midfielder Hayley Ladd and striker Kelly Gago from Manchester United and Nantes, along with three loan moves. For the first time in nearly 12 months, Sorensen had a full bench. In April, Sorensen and his assistant manager, Stephen Neligan, signed new contracts, followed by new deals for defenders Kenzie Weir and Clare Wheeler. The following month, Everton confirmed the women's team's historic move to Goodison Park, leaving behind Walton Hall Park, along with the appointment of Hannah Forshaw as chief executive of Everton Women. 🏟️ More memories to be made at our new home, Goodison Park. — Everton Women (@EvertonWomen) May 31, 2025 'Active' is how Sorensen describes the period. Which feels something of an understatement. 'For the first time since I've been here, I got all of my targets,' he adds. 'That's never happened before because we're not in the top of the ranking order.' Sorensen assembles his hands to form a food chain. 'There's Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United, then the powerhouses in Spain, France and Germany, then some Italian teams because they pay more.' He drops his hand lower. 'Then there's us.' Under TFG, the ambition is to reposition Everton into the top echelon, as well as be a landing spot for England internationals. No English club was represented in Sarina Wiegman's England Euro 2025 squad outside the top four (although Arsenal forward Michelle Agyemang was included after a season on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion). Only six Everton players from last season regularly started for their international teams. Sorensen has faith the shift will occur sooner rather than later. He tells the story of TFG's first meeting at Finch Farm in January in front of the club's entire staff and playing teams. 'The first thing they said was they want to support the women's team,' Sorensen says. 'Then they began speaking about the men's team, the academy, so on. That was the first sign of, 'OK, they actually want to support us, they're taking it seriously'.' Advertisement The move to Goodison has been a catalyst — for recruitment but also commercial opportunities. 'Thousands of people (at Goodison on May 18) had probably never watched Everton Women,' Sorensen says. Now? Gates of 10,000 is the ambition, roughly five times the average attendance (2,000) Everton clocked during the 2023-24 season, the second lowest in the WSL. The limitations of Walton Hall Park — 2,200 capacity (half that under a roof) and council ownership meant little could be done to enhance the matchday experience — take some blame. Another avenue for revenue generation is selling shares in Everton Women to investors, similar to Alexis Ohanian's minority stake in Chelsea Women. 'I look at Angel City or Kansas City (in NWSL), the valuation they built from scratch,' Sorensen says. 'We have the best league in the world. If people can understand and see the growth, if they have the American mindset that this is something you should invest in now rather than later, then I don't see why it's not possible to do that in this country.' Or at Everton. 'We have something here,' Sorensen says, reeling off a list: the country's 'best stadium'. A clear playing style. Last season's fifth-best defence in the WSL, despite having a rotating cast that included six different centre-back partnerships, five right-backs and three left-backs. Sorensen also knows the value of the collective. His family lived within 15 miles of each other, all skilled tradespeople: plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers. 'The whole family would go over to one sibling's house, do it up in two months, then go to the next one,' he says. Sorensen's recruitment doctrine has roots here, valuing people and teamwork skills above all else, sounding out the opinions of players over those of agents for character references. With most recruitment work finished, Sorensen's summer plans are relaxed. In late May, he travelled back to Denmark with Camilla, their six-week-old son, Milas, and Rose, the latter spending her days on the tractor with her grandad, navigating the fields Sorensen grew up on. Advertisement Now back in Liverpool, there's a new garden to build, a workout gym for himself and his wife. 'I need to get fit,' he quips. He's already constructed an outdoor gymnastics setup for his daughter, fit with climbing walls, monkey bars, a rubber floor and a television so she can stream practice videos. 'She walks more on her hands than her legs nowadays.'
The Sun
17-05-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Goodison Park to be made smaller as Everton reveal what it could look like as women's stadium
GOODISON PARK will be made smaller as part of its conversion for the Everton Women's team. The iconic stadium will be repurposed by the club after the men's team moves to the new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock. 5 Goodison Park was first opened in 1892 and has a capacity of 39,572. But that is set to be reduced as multiple parts will be reconfigured. This will be done by reducing the number of seats in each row in order to add space. Everton's women's team currently has an average attendance of 2,062 at their current home of Walton Hall Park. The club has offered season ticket holders and hospitality members the chance to buy the seat that was theirs for this season. It would act as a souvenir of the historic stadium following Sunday's home match against Southampton. The women's side are excited about the prospect of playing their regular football at Goodison. Captain Megan Finnigan has insisted that the team will belong at the ground. She said: "To walk out at Goodison Park as our permanent home will be a real honour. "It's where we belong — and we can't wait to create new memories there." 10,000 attend test event at Everton's new stadium 5 5 While manager Brian Sorensen insisted that it can help the club's dreams grow. He added: "Our players will now have a stage that matches their potential. "Our fans will have a place to build an even stronger matchday culture. "Young girls across Merseyside will see that this is a club where dreams can grow and come true." Goodison Park will feature more branding of the women's team on the upper tier of the Howard Kendall Gwladys Street End. Meanwhile, the new 53,000-seater Everton stadium has had its formal name revealed. The club has partnered with legal firm Hill Dickinson, which has taken the naming rights. The stadium will now be known as the Hill Dickinson Stadium. 5 5
