Emma Hayes says she is “looking forward” to adapting to the challenges of international management as she prepares to take the USWNT head coach role following over 20 years in club football.
Hayes announced in November she would be departing Chelsea at the end of the 2023-24 season after 12 years in charge. Her appointment as U.S. head coach was confirmed later that month.
The 47-year-old has established Chelsea as a major force in the women’s game, winning 13 major trophies. She takes over a U.S. side that suffered its earliest World Cup exit at last summer’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand, where they lost to Sweden in the Round of 16.
“The whole thing’s a huge challenge,” Hayes told the Football Writers’ Association. “While we don’t have the game accumulation like I face as a club manager, the challenge of all the things the job involves, I’m looking forward to. It’s a lot less hands-on with players but it means I’ll develop another side to myself and I’ll have to work with a team off the pitch as well in a much different way to prepare for major tournaments.
“I’m so excited to go to an Olympics and a World Cup. (It’s) what dreams are made of to think I’m in a position where I can lead a team out at the Paris Olympics and a World Cup…
