Chelsea manager Emma Hayes has been appointed head coach of the US in a record deal that would make her the world’s highest-paid women’s soccer coach, the US Soccer Federation said on Tuesday.
Hayes, 47, revealed earlier this month that she plans to leave Chelsea at the end of the season after a trophy-laden spell in charge of the English club.
“This is a huge honor to be given the opportunity to coach the most incredible team in world football history,” Hayes said in a statement confirming her appointment.
Photo: Reuters
The federation did not divulge details of Hayes’ contract, but said she would become the “highest-paid women’s soccer coach in the world.”
ESPN, citing a source with knowledge of the contract negotiations, reported that Hayes’ deal would run through 2027 and see her earn a salary that was “close if not equal” to the US$1.6 million earned by US men’s soccer coach Gregg Berhalter.
Hayes will see out her duties with Chelsea in the Women’s Super League (WSL) and then formally take up her US role next year, two months before the Paris Olympics, where the Americans would be looking to recapture the gold medal they last won in 2012.
Hayes is one of the most respected figures in the world of women’s soccer, leading Chelsea to six WSL titles, five FA Cups and two league cups. In 2021, she took Chelsea to the final of the women’s Champions League and was named FIFA’s women’s coach of the year.
The English coach, who started her coaching career in women’s club soccer in the US in 2001 after her promising playing career was cut short by injury, would be handed the task of returning the USA to the pinnacle of women’s soccer.
The US women have dominated women’s international soccer for much of the past decade, winning back-to-back FIFA Women’s World Cups in 2015 and 2019.
However, they were bundled out of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in August in the last 16 — the team’s worst-ever showing at a World Cup.
Vlatko Andonovski left as coach in the aftermath.
Hayes said her appointment was the realization of a lifelong dream, adding that the job was simply impossible to turn down.
“I’ve dreamed about doing this job from my days as a coach in my early 20s,” she said. “You can’t turn the US Women’s National Team down.”
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