USWNT close to hiring Chelsea’s Emma Hayes as new coach

Longtime Chelsea supervisor Emma Hayes is in superior discussions to develop into the pinnacle coach of the four-time World Cup champion United States women’s national team, a number of sources confirmed to FOX Sports on Saturday. A U.S. Soccer spokesperson couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. The Equalizer first reported the talks. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported late Saturday that the U.S. Soccer board had formally voted to approve the rent. Hayes will develop into the highest-paid girls’s coach on this planet, in accordance to The Athletic, surpassing England’s Sarina Wiegman, who’s believed to earn a base wage round $500,000. Hayes’ deal might see her earn twice that quantity, if no more. 

Earlier Saturday, Chelsea introduced that Hayes, who led the Blues to 14 main trophies and 6 Women’s Super League titles, together with the final 4 in a row, since becoming a member of the London membership in 2012, would go away on the finish of the 2023-24 season in May to pursue “a new opportunity outside the WSL and club football.” 

Once the hiring goes by way of, Hayes will substitute interim U.S. coach Twila Kilgore, who took over the group in August after Vlatko Andonovski mutually parted ways with U.S. Soccer. Andonovski’s American squad was eradicated from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand by Sweden within the Round of 16. The USWNT, which received back-to-back world titles in 2015 and 2019, had by no means failed to advance to at the very least the semifinals at any of the earlier eight Women’s World Cups. Former USWNT basic supervisor Kate Markgraf additionally left U.S. Soccer following the historic failure, which noticed the two-time defending champs rating only one purpose over their last three matches.

In 11 years with Chelsea, Hayes has dominated, main the group to two home league and cup doubles and one trophy treble.

“Emma’s contribution to Chelsea cannot be understated,” Chelsea homeowners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali stated in a press release saying her departure. “She has been a pioneer in women’s football and is hugely respected within the game.”

Hayes, 47, started her teaching profession within the U.S., main the Long Island Lady Riders from 2002-03 and NCAA facet Iona from 2003-2006. She moved again to her native England to work as an assistant at Arsenal Women earlier than returning to the U.S. to lead the NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars from 2008-10. There was hypothesis that Hayes wouldn’t need to depart England for causes aside from having top-of-the-line jobs within the membership recreation. Her father died final month, and taking the U.S. job would virtually actually imply having to relocate stateside for the third time in her profession, probably leaving her newly widowed mom an ocean away.

The U.S. received an Olympic bronze medal on the final Summer Games in Tokyo below Andonovski, who has since been hired as coach and sporting director of the Kansas City Current within the NWSL. Andonovski beforehand led the NWSL group in Seattle and FC Kansas City, the Current’s predecessor within the high division of American skilled girls’s soccer.

When it turns into official, Hayes’ appointment will likely be U.S. Soccer sporting director Crocker’s second main senior nationwide group rent since becoming a member of the federation from English membership Southampton final April. In June, the Wales native re-signed Gregg Berhalter to lead the American men through the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. will co-host with North American neighbors Canada and Mexico. Berhalter oversaw the USMNT’s run to the spherical of 16 on the 2022 occasion in Qatar earlier than his contract expired at 12 months’s finish.

Hayes will take over a U.S. girls’s program in flux. Longtime stalwarts Julie Ertz and Megan Rapinoe retired final month. Other veterans like Alex Morgan and Becky Sauerbrunn may not be starters, in the event that they’re concerned in any respect, by the point the 2027 World Cup kicks off. But Morgan and Sauerbrunn are each anticipated to stay with this system at the very least by way of subsequent Summer’s Olympics in Paris. The U.S. received the final of its 4 Olympic gold medals in London in 2012.

Kilgore’s October roster is blended youngsters like Olivia Moultrie, Jaedyn Shaw and Alyssa Thompson with established regulars such as Naomi Girma, Lindsey Horan and Sophia Smith. Shaw scored her first worldwide purpose in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Colombia. Mia Fishel, who performs below Hayes at Chelsea, additionally scored in that match. 

Several others projected starters had been lacking due to accidents, together with forwards Catarina Macario and Mallory Swanson and attacking midfielder Rose Lavelle.

Information from The Associated Press was included on this report.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer author for FOX Sports. Before becoming a member of FOX Sports in 2021, he was a employees author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has lined United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups at a number of FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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