Sarina Wiegman has admitted she questioned whether she would be able to leave the Netherlands to become manager of the Lionesses and said she immersed herself in English culture after her appointment to aid the transition.
Speaking as the England men’s manager, Gareth Southgate, is taking time to decide whether he wants to continue in his role, provoking discussions on the future nationality of the England manager, Wiegman talked of her experience of leading the England women’s team to winning the European Championship as a foreign manager.
Wiegman said she did consider her own nationality when first approached by the Football Association. “I thought about it when I first got in contact with England, when they reached out to me,” the 53-year-old Dutchwoman said.
“I was head coach of the Netherlands but my first thought was can I leave the Netherlands? I grew up there, it’s my country and we were talking about extending my contract.”
Wiegman took time to consider the interest. “I just waited, that’s how it works in my head, I needed some time to think and to feel. It stuck with me. Most of the time when some people reach out to me about an interesting job, after a couple of days it would just fade [and I would think]: ‘No, I’m going to stay with the Netherlands.’ But this one stuck with me. It was very exciting, it’s a big country, England is a big football country, [it has] the WSL, the potential of the team, so I started to have conversations.”
Critical to her taking the decision was developing an understanding of what the FA wanted and letting them know what they could expect. “I really wanted to share who I really am, what my vision is, how I work with people, how I think of training and things like that,” she said. “If the FA would have said: ‘Hmm, I don’t think you’re a [good] fit with England,’ then that would have been fine. The other way around, I asked the FA too about what they thought the future was. So, they gave me information so I could figure out if I was a good fit for them.”
The conversations went well and Wiegman said that, in the end, both parties felt enthusiastic about working together. Then she started to adapt. “When I got [to England] I tried to learn more about the culture,” said the manager, who said during Euro 2022 that she had had to get used to having milk in her tea and had tried fish and chips and Sunday roasts but did not have the stomach for a full English.
“Although the countries are really close together there are some differences in culture, so I really tried to learn. I took some English classes in football. I said [to the FA that] I will learn about your culture and try and adapt to your culture, but the directness you have to know … I will not go around it or change that. The other things, I will try to adapt to. I think it went really well and we’ve really enjoyed ourselves., I think we can still grow a lot.”
