Sarina Wigman led the Lionesses to Euro triumph and is now aiming for global glory. the coast of the Netherlands, while three children kick a ball on the main field of Sportpark De Roodemolen, the home ground of Ter Leede. Rows of bike racks adjoin an overgrown parking lot, pretty loft houses looming on the horizon, and all is quiet except for the low rumble of cars passing on a nearby motorway and the sound of one of the young players commenting on his game in a hushed but high-pitched voice. He pretends to be Neymar.
In many ways, this is a typical grassroots football scene. Little is said about the fact that this is where one of the best managerial careers to ever grace English football began 17 years ago, but this is where it all began for Sarina Wigman.
As manager of Ter Leede – her first job as a head coach – Wigman would win the league and cup double in the 2006–07 season. She spent most of her playing career at the club, helping the club win two league titles before retiring in 2003. Now a senior club official simply says, “This place will never forget her.”
A short drive south and the city lights get brighter and the buildings start to rise higher as, in keeping with Wigman's rise in coaching, the roads lead to The Hague. It was here, after only one year in charge of Ter Leede, that Wigman was bought by ADO Den Haag, who created a women's team in 2007 in connection with the creation of the Dutch women's league.
Robert Reyenga was the club's director at the time and says there was only one candidate for the position. “She was extraordinary,” he says. “She knew how to be honest with the players and was very, very popular.
Sarina Wigman was a combat midfielder when she played for her national team. In 2014, she was responsible for launching the youth academy.”
That's not all Wigman has done there, as she led ADO Den Haag to a league and cup double in 2012. Accompanied by a 24-hour casino and tall billboards next to a bustling A4 and a huge car park, the modern club stadium Bingoal houses a statue of former Netherlands men's national team player Aad Mansveld. Perhaps someday Wigman's statue will be considered suitable.
Wigman had been managing ADO Den Haag for seven years when Reyenga got the call during the 2014 Men's World Championships. The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) wanted Wigman to become an assistant coach for the women's national team. “We felt she needed this step to get into the national team,” says Reyenga.
Wigman worked under Roger Reiners in the Netherlands, and the pair led the country to their first Women's World Cup final in Canada in 2015.
“We were looking for an assistant coach, preferably a woman, because our technical staff lacked one, and Sarina and I spoke several times, and it seemed to me that this is a very good appointment,” Reiners says of bringing Wigman on board. “Because she was an international player herself, she knew a lot and immediately made our cadre team stronger.
“My memories of Sarina are of a person who has always been very dedicated to her job and dedicated cadre team. She has always been very professional and knows exactly how to develop a training style as well as how to develop personalities. She was always very sensitive to people and worked very professionally.
Following this World Cup, Wigman made history as the first female coach to join the coaching staff of a men's professional team in the Netherlands, becoming part of the Sparta team in Rotterdam. After that, she became the natural choice to replace Reiners in the national team.
Wirgman was the natural successor to Roger Reiners as coach of the Netherlands. Photo: Getty Images
The Netherlands have never played in a major tournament, but in 1988 they were one of 12 teams invited by FIFA to compete in China, which was a kind of feasibility study for the Women's World Cup.
At this tournament, Wigman met Anson Dorrance, a man who later had a great influence on her career. Dorrance, who led the United States to glory in the 1991 World Cup, invited Wigman to study and play for his college team, the North Carolina Tar Heels. His program has helped attract many of the game's legends, from Mia Hamm to Lucy Bronze, and most recently, lionesses Lotta Wubben-Moy and Alessia Russo, and before them Wigman.
Ahead of this year's World Cup, Wigman reflected on this life-changing invitation, saying, “I heard in the US that it's a big sport, that it's accepted and that the level is high, so I thought, 'This is where I want to be.' ’.”
This spell has proved to be an important prop in the US, and the Americans' winning mentality seems to have waned as well. Her managerial career since 2017 has been immortalized, leading the Netherlands to European Championship triumph in her home country in 2017 and then England to their first major trophy last summer.
After such a historic triumph at Wembley, England men's team manager Gareth Southgate says he was impressed with Wigman's handling of her role, adding: “We're always in camp at different times, but I see her a lot, talk to her a lot. I think she handled everything calmly and impressively. The girls love it and the way it works.
Wigman was right when she led England to victory at the European Championship last summer. Photo: Getty Images/Naomi Baker
“I love our communication. They're going into an interesting period with the changes in the Women's Super League and this club strength dynamic, and it's going to have a bit more of what we've been dealing with moving forward. But, first of all, she is a woman who I get along well with and enjoy talking to, and she has done a brilliant job with the team.”
This is certainly true, but Wigman has one honor left – the first person to win the FIFA Best Coach award three times – winning the World Cup. A loser from the Netherlands four years ago, she and her lionesses will now try to complete their journey from a small dugout in sleepy Sassenheim to world champion in the next four and a half weeks in Australia.
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