Chelsea Women manager Emma Hayes will leave the Women’s Super League club at the end of the 2023-24 season to take over the U.S. women’s national team, according to sources briefed on the hiring process, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the decision.
Chelsea announced Hayes’ departure earlier on Saturday. The U.S. Soccer Federation refused to comment.
Discussions are advanced and if all goes according to plan, Hayes will become the highest-paid coach in world women’s football when she joins U.S. Soccer. The federation, which signed collective bargaining agreements guaranteeing equal pay for its men’s and women’s senior national team players in 2022, could seek to bring Hayes in line with U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Berhalter’s salary was listed at $1.6 million in the USSF’s 2022 financial filings and will have presumably received a raise since signing a new deal with the federation.
Hayes will be leaving with Chelsea’s blessing, and the west London club is not requesting compensation in return for her completing the season on an exclusive basis. Chelsea is also keen to explore how she can still help them grow while she’s in the United States.
Chelsea’s…
