Including world champions, Olympic gold medallists and Champions League winners, GOAL runs through the best coaches in the women's game since 2000…
Emma Hayes, Sarina Wiegman and Lluis Cortes all had extremely different paths into management. Injury meant Hayes' playing career never really got off the ground and so coaching was her focus from a very early point; Wiegman won almost 100 caps for the Netherlands before transitioning to the dugout; Cortes was an analyst who gradually progressed into a head-coaching role. Yet, what they share in common is that they are all among the very best managers the women's game has seen in the 21st century.
The differences between all three are representative of the contrasting paths that exist among most of the top coaches in the sport. It's proof that there is not one particular route to becoming a successful coach.
That's a point emphasised across GOAL's ranking of the best coaches in women's football in the 21st century. So, who is the very best that the sport has seen in the past 25 years?
Getty Images25Casey Stoney
It's still very early in Casey Stoney's managerial career, and yet she's already made a significant mark on the sport. That first came at Manchester United, where she was charged with overseeing the re-emergence in the women's game of one of football's most recognisable brands. Through three years, the former England defender helped the Red Devils win promotion from the second-tier and then establish themselves as a team able to mix it with the elite trio of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City. When United challenged for the Women's Super League title in the season after her departure, it was important to note the foundations Stoney had laid.
Stoney then transferred that success to the U.S. after being appointed head coach of San Diego Wave, one of the NWSL's expansion teams for 2022. In her first year, the Wave became the first team to reach the NWSL playoffs in their inaugural season. In her second season, they won the NWSL Shield, that the league title. In her third, they won the Challenge Cup.
Controversially, Stoney was relieved of her duties midway through the 2024 campaign, despite the Wave still being in playoff contention and the club only turning to interim coaches in the remainder of the year. However, few would bet against Stoney bouncing back in whatever her next job is.
AdvertisementGetty Images24Martina Voss-Tecklenburg
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg has had impressive longevity in the women's game. Back in 2009, she enjoyed her greatest achievement as a manager when she guided Duisburg to the Champions League title and yet, in 2022, she was so close to being a European champion again. Without flying winger Klara Buhl due to illness and after star striker Alex Popp had withdrawn in the warm-up, Germany team were beaten by the finest of margins in the European Championship final, in which Chloe Kelly's extra-time strike for England was the only difference.
But in between those two spells was another which was impressive in different ways. In 2012, Voss-Tecklenburg took over the Switzerland national team and, through a six-year spell, she would guide the side to a first-ever Women's World Cup and a first-ever Euros. Those contributions from the former Germany international helped take the Swiss, hosts of next summer's Euros, to the next level in the women's game.
Imagn Images23Mark Parsons
Through Mark Parsons' time in charge of the Portland Thorns, the team were a constant force and, at several points, the team to beat in U.S. women's soccer. The Thorns made the playoffs in all five of his seasons, won two NWSL Shields, two NWSL Championship titles and the Challenge Cup. It was a trophy-laden stint.
Perhaps most impressive about Parsons' time in Portland was how he managed to balance defensive stability and attacking prowess. The Thorns set several NWSL records on both sides of the ball through those five years, making them such a tough opposition to get the better of.
Parsons left Portland in 2021 to take charge of the Netherlands, but it didn't prove a cohesive pairing and ended quite miserably when the Dutch's defence of their 2017 Euros title was ended at the quarter-final stage. When he returned to the U.S. last year with the Washington Spirit, that didn't quite work out either. However, neither stint should take away from what he achieved at Portland, and it seems unlikely that another successful stint in the sport will evade him.
Getty Images22Arthur Elias
Corinthians are one of the most successful and recognisable teams in Brazilian football, so when they decided to return to women's football in 2015, winning trophies as soon as possible would surely be important. Despite being just 37 years old when Corinthians formally entered the women's top-flight, Arthur Elias delivered on those expectations immediately. When he left the club in 2023, he did so having led Corinthians to 13 major titles, including three Copa Libertadores triumphs.
With a league title, a Copa Libertadores crown and a Brazilian Cup also to his name from before Corinthians' proper establishment as a women's team, Elias was a strong choice by the Brazil women's national team as their next appointment – and he has lived up to expectations quickly in that job, too. In his first year in charge, the 43-year-old guided the Selecao to the Olympic gold medal match, in which the U.S. narrowly emerged as 1-0 winners. Given how young he still is, it's exciting to think what more Elias could achieve.
