According to Sarina Wiegman, Leonne Stentler’s story is true that she does not have the ambition to train a club like FC Twente in the future. The current coach of the England women’s team does not consider men’s football ‘the holy grail’. Wiegman avoids the question of whether Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord can come knocking.
The discussion about a possible future move from Wiegman to a men’s team arose last year during the European Championship, which was won by England from the Dutch national coach. “I think she would refuse a club like Twente, yes,” said reporter Suse van Kleef in the studio of the NOS.
Stentler wholeheartedly agreed with Van Kleef. “I think so too, for sure. World top is different from the national competition. Just like it is different for women whether you are going to coach the Ajax women or the Dutch national team. She really wants to be at the top of the top and that is where she is now. “What is another step higher for her?”, the former international of the Oranje Lionesses wondered.
Wiegman’s response
Wiegman endorses Stentler’s statement in an extensive interview with de Volkskrant. “I think that’s right.” The national coach of the English women is a lot less certain about a follow-up at Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord. “No, no, I won’t go into that further. I want to work at the top, that’s what I’m doing now and I’m not going to take a step back, that’s all I want to say about it.”
The former national coach of the the Dutch Women, who won the European title in her own country in 2017, does not know whether she would feel at home in the men’s world. “Men’s football is certainly not the holy grail for me. At the moment I am very satisfied with women’s football. I started at Ter Leede, then ADO Den Haag. The Netherlands. Now England.”
“I am busy performing, and at the same time I am trying to change the world in a positive way. A combination that I am sure will make me happy,” said Wiegman, who lost a World Cup final for the second time last summer. Four years ago with the Netherlands, this time with the English team.
Wiegman does not see herself as a role model in the world of women’s football anyway. “I am often told: ‘You have to go to the men, because the hegemony has to be broken’. As if I am responsible for that. But I am not going to take up a position because others think I have to break something.”