Emma Hayes, Sarina Wiegman and the 25 best women’s managers of the 21st century so far – ranked

Tina Theune only had five years in coaching that qualified for this list, as her time as Germany manager ran from 1996 to 2005, but those years were so trophy-laden. Having spent 10 years as an assistant beforehand, Theune utilised that experience to the maximum during her time at the forefront, winning two European Championships, a World Cup title and two Olympic bronze medals from the turn of the century.

Germany were already the dominant force in Europe when Theune took charge, but she was the woman who delivered a first World Cup title – and it was no easy path to do so, with the USWNT dispatched in the semi-finals before an extra-time, golden goal, victory over Sweden in the final. Falling short in the Olympics was only by fine margins, too. A late own goal allowed Norway to beat them in the semi-finals in 2000, while the U.S. needed extra-time in the next edition.

Theune’s work was impressive in isolation, but the strong position she left the team in when she did move on in 2005, and gave the reins to assistant Silvia Neid, is also worth noting.

During Jonatan Giraldez’s three-year stint as Barcelona boss, there were 12 trophies on offer. He won 10. The two marks against that record? Expulsion from the Spanish Cup due to an ineligible player mix-up and a Champions League final defeat to eight-time winners Lyon.

After sitting as assistant when Lluis Cortes’ guided the Catalans to their first European title, Giraldez helped carry the team through the next stage of their development, which was about establishing themselves as a consistent force at the very top of the game. Barca certainly did that under the 32-year-old, staging a remarkable comeback in the 2022-23 UWCL final to beat two-time winners Wolfsburg before claiming back-to-back titles for the first time when they recorded a first-ever win over Lyon in the final the following year.

While coaching a stacked squad like Barca’s might seem like a luxurious task, Giraldez was consistently good at managing the loads of his players, had to contend with major injuries to stars such as Alexia Putellas and Mapi Leon, and helped the team’s style to evolve into one so devastating that it delivered a first-ever quadruple on the women’s side.

Now, he’s looking to export some of his magic to the U.S., having started a new chapter with the Washington Spirit this year. Still so young and with so much time ahead of him in his coaching career, it’s remarkable to think what he could go on to achieve.

No one has won the NWSL’s Coach of the Year accolade on more occasions than Laura Harvey, who has earned iconic status in the city of Seattle over the past decade. Harvey’s coaching career started in England, with an ACL injury cutting her playing days short. Aged 26, she became the head coach of Birmingham and, soon enough, she earned the top job at Arsenal. There, a return of six major titles in three seasons caught the eye of the Seattle Reign, ahead of the inaugural NWSL season.

After a tough first season, Harvey set about making the Reign one of the best teams in the league. In both 2014 and 2015, they topped the regular-season standings to win back-to-back Shields, with a well-assembled and well-coached team playing some mesmerising football. She helped Seattle achieve that feat again in 2022, the high point to date of her second stint at the club.

The one thing missing from Harvey, and the Reign’s, trophy cabinet is that NWSL Championship. The pair have been to three finals together and come up just short on each occasion, with the 2023 edition, Megan Rapinoe’s final game for her only NWSL club, surely the most brutal. But the unforgiving nature of the NWSL playoffs shouldn’t take away from Harvey’s fantastic coaching qualities, which earn her a spot firmly in the upper echelons of this list.

When Norio Sasaki took over the Japan national team, their record on the international stage was poor. The Nadeshiko had just suffered a third-successive group-stage exit at the World Cup and had only once got to the knockouts – that after winning just one game and qualifying as one of the best third-placed sides. There had been little joy at the Olympics, too.

Under Sasaki, that all changed. After a few years in the youth national teams, where he coached a lot of the upcoming generation that would drive the success tasted in his new role, the manager had an immediate impact on his new squad when they reached a first-ever international semi-final at the Olympic Games. It was a sign of things to come.

In the next seven years, Japan would reach an unprecedented three major international finals, win the World Cup, collect a maiden Olympic medal (silver) and lift the Asian Cup for the first time. First as a youth coach and then with the senior team, Sasaki transformed Japan into a force in women’s football and the legacy he left can be seen in the status the Nadeshiko hold in the game today.

It’s hard to dispute Sarina Wiegman’s record in international football: She has coached at two World Cups and two European Championships, and made the final of all four. In 2017, just six months after being appointed head coach, she led the Netherlands to a genuinely unprecedented Euros title. Two years on, she showed that this was no fluke and that the Dutch were now one of the major forces in the women’s game, reaching a World Cup final in which the U.S. had to work extremely hard to win.

In 2022, she then became the first coach to win the Euros with two different countries when she matched what she did with her home country and led England to their first major tournament triumph on the women’s side. The Lionesses were further along than the Netherlands in their journey to becoming a true power in the sport, but it was Wiegman who got them over that line and then led them to a first Women’s World Cup final the following year.

Like any coach, the 54-year-old is not flawless, but she is a true winner, she instils belief in her players and when it really matters, she’s made big decisions that have paid off. That’s why she is so successful.

When Emma Hayes took over at Chelsea, they were also-rans in English women’s football. A top-flight team, yes, but one with little history of challenging for titles. In an astounding 12-year tenure, the iconic coach changed all of that. Always pushing for more investment, greater commitment and the best resources possible, she transformed Chelsea into the dominant force in the domestic game.

In her tenure, Hayes returned seven league titles, including five in a row; five FA Cup triumphs, including three in a row; and two League Cups, those back-to-back. Chelsea did five doubles and one treble in nine seasons. She also helped the Blues to take serious strides on the European stage, guiding them to their first Women’s Champions League final in 2021 and was so close to getting to another in her final campaign, only to see a remarkable first-leg victory at Barcelona slip away at home.

In so many ways, the club game suited Hayes. She’s excellent at managing people and her ability to sign young players and develop them into stars was impressive. Yet, it seems she also has a knack for the international stage. In 2024, despite taking over just a few weeks before the start of the tournament, she kicked-off her time in charge of the USWNT with an Olympic gold medal. And that’s just the start of her next chapter.

There were very few teams that were able to go toe-to-toe with Lyon when they were in their most dominant form through the 2010s. On a consistent basis, the only side that could really claim to do so was Wolfsburg, who were led by Ralf Kellerman from 2008 to 2017. Through creative scouting, great forward-planning and impressive development of young players, the German side grew into the dominant force in the domestic game and OL’s biggest rival in Europe.

A narrow win over Lyon in the 2013 UWCL final gave Wolfsburg their first continental crown, and despite three German sides having won it before, they became the first representative from their country to win back-to-back European titles the following season. Only on penalties did Lyon stop them from becoming a three-time champion in 2016.

In 2017, Kellerman resigned and moved into a sporting director role at the club, where his savvy transfer business has continued to have an impact and kept Wolfsburg among Europe’s elite. Having taken over the first team when they were a mid-table side, he helped turn them into a team that won four German Cups, three league titles and two Champions League crowns in a particularly golden four-year spell.

When Barcelona made a first Women’s Champions League final back in 2019, it was a culmination of several years of hard work. Professionalism, smart recruitment and the promotion of youth players meant the squad was in great shape to take that leap and really become a force in the European game. All it needed was the perfect coach.

Lluis Cortes had joined the club as an analyst in 2017 and then moved into the coaching team, before becoming head coach in January 2019. Within six months, he was leading them out in a European final. “Lluis brought back something that is not tangible, but which is this glue that sticks everything together and really makes things work,” Maria Teixidor, a former member of the Barcelona board and head of women’s football from 2017 to 2020, told GOAL previously.

Barca wouldn’t have their day on that occasion, but it would come. Learning from defeat to Lyon in their first final, the Catalans returned two years later and thrashed Chelsea to win the Women’s Champions League for the first time. Cortes would depart after that triumph, having won seven major titles in two-and-a-half years. He’s taken relatively obscure jobs since, with the national teams of Ukraine and now Saudi Arabia, but his role in helping Barca get over the line on the biggest stage shouldn’t be overlooked. Indeed, his work was crucial in helping the team become the incredible force they are in the women’s game today.

Like her predecessor Theune, Silvia Neid worked her way up to the position of Germany head coach, accumulating vital experience while delivering success for the youth teams and sitting as assistant coach. When she got the top job in 2005, she made it all count, overseeing an 11-year period in which Germany won everything.

Three-time FIFA World Coach of the Year, Neid would’ve surely had more accolades like that if they had existed before 2010, as by that point she had already guided Germany to a World Cup and a Euros triumph. Victory over Brazil in the 2007 World Cup final meant Germany became the first team to successfully defend the title, a feat that wouldn’t be matched until the U.S. did it in 2019, while a continental crown in 2009 was followed up by another in 2013.

But there was still one thing missing – Olympic gold. Under Theune, Germany collected bronze in back-to-back Games and then, in Neid’s first edition in charge, they claimed another. After failing to qualify in 2012, following a disappointing performance at their home World Cup, 2016 was the moment. In Neid’s final tournament in charge, they beat a spirited Sweden 2-1 in the gold medal match.

There are very few footballers in the women’s game who have triumphed at the World Cup, the Euros and the Olympics, those names either playing for Germany between 2007 and 2016 or Norway between 1993 and 2000. But when it comes to coaches, such an achievement is even rarer. Neid is the only one.