On Nov. 14, Emma Hayes was announced as the new manager of the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT). Hayes became the 10th full-time and fourth female manager in the team’s history, succeeding Vlatko Andonovski, who served as manager from 2019 to 2023. Hayes also became the highest-paid women’s coach in the world, matching the salary of the U.S. Men’s National Team coach, according to The Athletic.
U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) President, Cindy Parlow Cone had nothing but praises for her recent hiree.
“Emma is a fantastic leader and world-class coach who sets high standards for herself and for everyone around her,” Parlow Cone said, “She has tremendous energy and an insatiable will to win. Her experience in the USA, her understanding of our soccer landscape and her appreciation of what it means to coach this team makes her a natural fit for this role.”
Hayes is currently the manager of Chelsea F.C. Women and has held that position since 2012. Throughout her 11-year tenure with them, she has won 14 major trophies including a domestic treble (winning the league and two additional cups) in the 2020-2021 season. She also won Best FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year in 2021. Before that, she was the manager of the Long Island Rough Riders in 2002, where she became the youngest manager in the league while also named USL W-League Manager of the Season. Then, from 2003 to 2005, she coached the Iona Gaels and then the Chicago Red Stars from 2008-2010. She was an assistant coach of the Arsenal F.C. Women’s team between 2006 and 2008 as well as the academy director. In 2010, she became the technical director of the Western New York Flash of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), helping to create the team that won the 2011 Championship.
Hayes shared her admiration of the USWNT and her excitement of coaching a team with such a great legacy, calling it “a dream come true.”
“This is a huge honor to be given the opportunity to coach the most incredible team in world football history,” Hayes stated in an interview with U.S. Soccer. “No one ever knows what the right time is in life for anything, but it’s the feeling I have for this team and for a country that I have a great connection with and a history with. I’ve dreamed about doing this job from my days as a coach in my early twenties. You can’t turn the U.S. Women’s National Team down.”
Hayes is set to officially begin with the USWNT at the end of the 2023-2024 season, two months before the 2024 Olympics. In the meantime, the team will be led by interim manager Twila Kilgore who has been in charge of the team since Andonovski resigned. Afterward, she will join Hayes’s staff as an assistant coach.