Latest news with #womeninsoccer
Japan Times
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Japan Times
Euro 2025 sets new record for female coaches
From tournament stalwarts Pia Sundhage and Sarina Wiegman to international debutant Rhian Wilkinson, the 2025 Women's European Championship, which kicked off on Wednesday in Switzerland, marks an historic high for female coaches. But while women's soccer is one of the better sports for female representation, male coaches still have a slight edge in terms of numbers with nine of the 16 teams at Euro 2025 coached by men and seven by women. The 43.75% of female coaches is a seismic leap from Euro 2013, where just 18.75% of teams were coached by women. That figure had nearly doubled by 2017 and held steady at 37.5% in 2022. "It's clear progress is being made — slowly but surely," the Female Coaching Network, a global community for female coaches, said. "Of course, there's still a long road ahead. Change takes time." Lack of success has not been a factor. Between 2000 and the 2023 Women's World Cup, all but one of the major women's soccer tournaments — the Women's World Cup, Women's Euros and the Olympics — were won by female-coached teams. The sole exception was the 2011 Women's World Cup, where Norio Sasaki coached Japan to the title. Wiegman was the last woman standing in 2023 in Australia, where England reached its first World Cup final, losing to Spain, which was managed by Jorge Vilda. Sundhage is by far the most experienced coach at Euro 2025, having been head coach of the United States and Sweden for five years each, Brazil for four years and now Switzerland. She guided the Americans to gold at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Wilkinson, who is coaching Wales in its major tournament debut, Elisabet Gunnarsdottir (Belgium), Nina Patalon (Poland), and Gemma Grainger (Norway) are the four women making their managerial debuts in a major senior tournament. Women represented about 13% of all coaches at last year's Paris Olympics, which was virtually unchanged from the Tokyo Games.
Al Arabiya
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Arabiya
Euro 2025 Pits Celebrated Soccer Couple Harder and Eriksson as Opponents in Denmark-Sweden Game
It is rare in top-level soccer for a player to be tasked with marking their life partner who is also the opponent's star striker. Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson's job Friday is stopping the threat of Denmark captain Pernille Harder in their opening game at the Women's European Championship. They have been a couple for 11 years whose influence and inspiration goes beyond sports since a photograph went viral of their kiss after a game at the 2019 World Cup in France. Ahead of their Euro 2025 game in Geneva, the previous clash for the pair–each with more than 100 national-team appearances–was a celebrated victory for Eriksson in February. Showing no personal favors as Sweden captain that evening, Eriksson's tough challenges late in a Nations League game left their mark. Harder had treatment for an injured side, then got Eriksson's elbow in her face when they wrestled at a corner near the end of Sweden's 2–1 win. Harder smiled ruefully after that foul was judged and seemed content last month that Eriksson was suspended for the return game when finishing top of the group was at stake. 'As a football player, it's nice that Magda won't play. But also to avoid these duels between us,' the Denmark captain said ahead of her team losing 6–1. A running joke this year has been that the loser must do the washing up at their home, and a Swedish fan's banner in Solna four weeks ago read: 'Pernille tar disken (Pernille does the dishes).' Eriksson and Harder have embraced their status as LGBTQ+ icons in soccer since the 2019 kiss in Paris on the sidelines of Sweden's victory over Canada in the round of 16. 'I didn't realize until that picture came out how big of an inspiration we actually are for a lot of people,' Harder told English daily Guardian after the tournament, when both signed with soccer's Common Goal social program. Eriksson said the reaction to the photo 'made me understand that OK, I am actually a role model to people.' They donate 1 percent of their salary to Common Goal and support its Play Proud project. Eriksson explained more of her personal philosophy in a film the couple made in 2022 with Vogue magazine's Scandinavian edition. 'That's something my dad always taught me when I was younger was to have integrity, to stand up for what you believe in,' she said. 'It's very important to stay true to my values.' Eriksson and Harder's relationship started in 2014 when teammates at Swedish club Linköping, and they were reunited at Chelsea and now with Bayern Munich. They have faced each other twice in 2018 on opposite sides of a Champions League semifinal–Harder scored as Wolfsburg eliminated Eriksson's Chelsea–and in a World Cup qualifying game that saw Sweden advance. Now their friendly rivalry finally lands on a tournament stage at Euro 2025.
The Independent
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Euro 2025 pits celebrated soccer couple Harder and Eriksson as opponents in Denmark-Sweden game
It is rare in top-level soccer for a player to be tasked with marking their life partner who is also the opponent's star striker. Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson's job Friday is stopping the threat of Denmark captain Pernille Harder in their opening game at the Women's European Championship. They have been a couple for 11 years whose influence and inspiration goes beyond sports, since a photograph went viral of their kiss after a game at the 2019 World Cup in France. Ahead of their Euro 2025 game in Geneva, the previous clash for the pair — each with more than 100 national-team appearances — was a celebrated victory for Eriksson in February. Showing no personal favors as Sweden captain that evening, Eriksson's tough challenges late in a Nations League game left their mark. Harder had treatment for an injured side then got Eriksson's elbow in her face when they wrestled at a corner near the end of Sweden's 2-1 win. Harder smiled ruefully after that foul was judged and seemed content last month that Eriksson was suspended for the return game when finishing top of the group was at stake. 'As a football player, it's nice that Magda won't play. But also to avoid these duels between us,' the Denmark captain said ahead of her team losing 6-1. A running joke this year has been that the loser must do the washing up at their home, and a Swedish fan's banner in Solna four weeks ago read: 'Pernille tar disken' (Pernille does the dishes). Eriksson and Harder have embraced their status as LGBTQ+ icons in soccer since the 2019 kiss in Paris, on the sidelines of Sweden's victory over Canada in the round of 16. 'I didn't realize until that picture came out how big of an inspiration we actually are for a lot of people,' Harder told English daily Guardian after the tournament, when both signed with soccer's Common Goal social program. Eriksson said the reaction to the photo 'made me understand that, 'OK, I am actually a role model to people'.' They donate 1% of their salary to Common Goal and support its Play Proud project. Eriksson explained more of her personal philosophy in a film the couple made in 2022 with Vogue magazine's Scandinavian edition. 'That's something my dad always taught me when I was younger was to have integrity, to stand up for what you believe in,' she said. 'It's very important to stay true to my values.' Eriksson and Harder's relationship started in 2014 when teammates at Swedish club Linköping, and they were reunited at Chelsea and now with Bayern Munich. They have faced each other twice, in 2018 on opposite sides of a Champions League semifinal — Harder scored as Wolfsburg eliminated Eriksson's Chelsea — and in a World Cup qualifying game that saw Sweden advance. Now their friendly rivalry finally lands on a tournament stage at Euro 2025. ___
Washington Post
28-06-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
Euro 2025: Norway's female soccer leaders blaze a trail for equality and progress
GENEVA — In the male-dominated world of soccer leadership, many of the trailblazing women have come from Norway. The Norway team at the Women's European Championship is captained by the first Women's Ballon d'Or winner, Ada Hegerberg , and led by a female federation president, Lise Klaveness, who is one of just three such leaders among the 55 UEFA member countries.
Associated Press
28-06-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Euro 2025: Norway's female soccer leaders blaze a trail for equality and progress
GENEVA (AP) — In the male-dominated world of soccer leadership, many of the trailblazing women have come from Norway. The Norway team at the Women's European Championship is captained by the first Women's Ballon d'Or winner, Ada Hegerberg, and led by a female federation president, Lise Klaveness, who is one of just three such leaders among the 55 UEFA member countries. Klaveness, who played for Norway's team that was runner-up at Euro 2005, sees a decades-long tradition of the federation being progressive, promoting women and speaking out at international meetings. Before her, there was Karen Espelund, the first woman to join UEFA's executive committee, and Ellen Wille, whose speech at a FIFA congress helped create the Women's World Cup. They all worked with Per Omdal, a long-time federation president who in 2022 was awarded one of Norway's highest civic honors to recognize his support for women's soccer. 'We are not perfect at all,' Klaveness told The Associated Press in a recent interview. 'Of course everything can be better, but I feel like I inherited something proud and value-based.' Captain Ada The captain of Norway's team at Euro 2025 in Switzerland — her squad will play in a group with the host, Finland and Iceland — fits perfectly into the national tradition. Hegerberg is a talented pioneer, winner of the first Ballon d'Or for women in 2018, and unafraid to have principles. The Lyon forward won the award in the second season of a five-year, self-imposed absence from the national team to protest a lack of equality for women from the federation. Even the award ceremony gave an unwanted opportunity for Hegerberg to show strong character and earn more admiration. Collecting the trophy on stage in Paris, she quickly shut down a French DJ's provocative comment about the sexualized dance twerking. In 2022, within weeks of Klaveness being elected, Hegerberg ended her exile. 'Ada already now sees she's part of something bigger … the connection in history,' Klaveness told the AP, describing the captain as 'a very beloved player.' World Cup origin story Hegerberg's exile meant missing the 2019 World Cup in France, the eighth edition of a tournament FIFA's all-male leadership finally launched in 1991. Wille's words at FIFA's annual meeting in 1986 were key to that progress. A member of the Norwegian federation's executive committee, her speech urging FIFA to do more for women's tournaments was a rare female contribution to any debate at its congress. Norway lost that first World Cup final to the United States but won the next title in 1995. UEFA pioneer At age 15 in 1976, Espelund was in the first wave of players when the Norwegian federation formally recognized women's soccer. She later played for the national team. In 2002, at a volatile FIFA congress, Espelund was a rare women in a leadership role as the federation's general secretary alongside president Omdal. Espelund took the platform to challenge FIFA's embattled then-president Sepp Blatter about its fragile finances ahead of him winning re-election. In 2011, with FIFA again in turmoil amid another controversial Blatter election and promises of governance reform, Espelund was appointed the first woman on the UEFA executive committee which she served for five years. Klaveness became the fourth in April. Inspiring role model Klaveness, a labor lawyer and judge, made an international impact in her first month as Norwegian federation president. At FIFA's congress in Qatar on the eve of the 2022 World Cup tournament draw Klaveness was alone in drawing attention to the host nation's treatment of migrant workers and criminalization of homosexual acts, and soccer's responsibility to acknowledge the issues. She later pushed the case at the Council of Europe for migrant workers' families to be compensated. Klaveness describes Omdal, a former UEFA vice president, as 'still my mentor' whom she sees each week. 'He really fought for a women's league in Norway and (to) have 50% (representation) on boards.' Now Klaveness is herself a role model for women in European soccer, including Norway's coach at Euro 2025, Gemma Grainger. 'I feel like Lise is a great example for me and for any female, to really stand by what she says,' Grainger told the AP. 'For her to stand up and talk so openly and fight for more than football is a true inspiration.' ___ AP soccer:
