ZURICH — The spotlight doesn’t sit easily with England manager Sarina Wiegman. Ask her about the praise she has received for her astonishing record of having reached five major tournament finals in a row, and she deflects. “I do find that awkward,” Wiegman said. “Of course, I find it very special too.”
But there is no escaping the remarkable nature of Wiegman’s achievement. On Sunday she will lead England into the Euro 2025 final against Spain. But when you ask her about the secret behind this unparalleled achievement, there is no sense of self.
“I do believe that everyone plays his or her part in the success,” she said. “What I’m trying to do is bring people together in the best possible way. Players and staff and the people around me are really, really good. And if they perform at their highest level, then the chance of winning a game is the highest possible. And that’s what I’m trying to do.”
This quintet of finals started eight years ago when she won Euro 2017 on home soil while in charge of Netherlands. She then took them to the final of the 2019 World Cup, where they lost to the United States. Then came the call from England. She won Euro 2022, got to the final of the 2023 World Cup and, on Sunday, it’s Spain in Basel.
“She’s a winner and she likes to win,” Leah Williamson said. “She’s very competitive — even when it comes to darts. She has that edge to her. We spoke about it in 2022, and she took us to the final. She works well with the team around her, and she empowers us, especially coming from a woman. I think she sees us, gives us space to be ourselves and encourages us to be better in a positive way.”
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Wiegman’s 70% win rate with England beats every other manager of the women’s or men’s national team who has coached at least 10 games, including Fabio Capello (67%), Tommy Tranter (65%), Mark Sampson (64%), and Gareth Southgate (60%). She is the only head coach to win European Championships at the helm of two different nations. Wiegman’s stunning win rate of 84% in tournaments puts her among the greatest international coaches ever, women’s or men’s.
In Wiegman’s own words, though, there has never been a tournament run quite like this one. While the morale on the team has been good throughout, it’s on the field where her managerial skills have been tested to their max.
England have got through to the final having stared into the abyss several times en route. The Lionesses have used up all nine of their lives, and they head into Sunday’s final against Spain as underdogs. But if there’s anyone who can pull one final rabbit out of the hat, it’s that major tournament magician Wiegman.
“What she does very well is that she really lives from match to match,” Dutch player Liza van der Most told ESPN. “She doesn’t look at the end result, but she’s really in the here and now. So, she approaches each match on its own. You know that you have to win every match to ultimately reach the final, but she doesn’t look that far ahead.
“Back then, she told us, ‘Hey, we have all the tools. We’ve come this far. A lot of people came to watch. And we’ve grown bigger and bigger as a team. We’ve also become closer and closer.’ So she gives you confidence without focusing too much on the result itself.”
Sarina Wiegman will coach in her fifth straight tournament final when England face Spain in the Euro 2025 final Sunday. Photo by Molly Darlington/UEFA via Getty Images
One method she employed during that tournament to ground the players was using inanimate objects as metaphors for their forthcoming match. Before one game in the team talk, she produced a mug. For their next match, that challenge was presented via a stuffed toy. (“That was pretty funny,” Van der Most said. “She surprised us with that every time.”) They won the final against Denmark 4-2. Two years later, they reached the final of the 2019 World Cup, where they came unstuck against the USWNT.
By September 2021, when Wiegman took the England job, she laid down some ground rules. One was telling the players to take off jewelry when they were training as it affected their performance data.
“I actually hate rules, because I think if everyone is really aware, we are here to perform and be at our best,” Wiegman said, looking back on 2021 during this tournament. “And if you use your common sense then you make the right decisions. What I try to do is to get principles or agreements, and if there is not an agreement then of course I’m going to say, ‘OK, I think this is how we’re going to do it,’ but I think that works the best.”
The players say Wiegman has evolved since her introduction. “Over the years, her getting to know the team and the dynamics of each player, gaining trust with players, you can see how she’s changed a little bit,” Lucy Bronze said.
Sources told ESPN that Wiegman’s methods and expectations have remained largely the same from 2021 through to Switzerland, and though they have seen a softer side, when the tough messages need to be delivered, she does it in a concise manner.
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“Sarina has always been direct,” Georgia Stanway said. That could be seen prior to the tournament when she told various senior players of their role in advance of the competition. Midfielder Fran Kirby retired from international duty after being told she wouldn’t make the final 23, while defender Millie Bright stepped aside to prioritize her mental health, and goalkeeper Mary Earps announced her international retirement too.
“I’ve always been a person that I think connections and conversations and communications are very important, because when things are clear — or as clear as possible — it’s good to give clarity and to give context at moments,” Wiegman said. “But, of course, as a human being I have developed too, so I think I do that a little bit better than I did 15 years ago.”
From the outside, this spell was perceived as chaos, a challenge to Wiegman’s plans with England on the ropes before the tournament began. But throughout it all, Wiegman remained steadfast in her methods and the way she delivered messages, eventually finding humor in her unequivocal manner.
After the win over Netherlands, Wiegman was in the news conference and had half an eye on the France-Wales match playing on a television at the back of the room. She was asked if she was going to watch the match and responded along the lines that she would if people stopped asking questions. Someone joked, “That’s very Dutch!” She responded with a smile as she walked out: “Yes, but not blunt!”
Still, the players have seen her change, and in this tournament, they could be heard talking more about her maternal instincts than previously. “She’s fairly consistent,” Keira Walsh said. “She probably shows her excitement a little bit more after games than she used to do. Obviously when you see on the side she’s dancing and singing, probably when she first came in, we didn’t see that so much. But in terms of how she delivers tactics and how she manages, I think she is very, very similar.
“She’s probably one of the best managers I’ve played for in terms of trying to make everyone feel loved. … She definitely shows her excited emotions a little bit more.”
“She’s really people-oriented, and I think that’s why she’s so successful with the different teams,” Van der Most said. “So, you are really asked to give as much as possible and put it all on the mat, but she’s also a coach who is very sympathetic and pays attention to the individual players.”
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The players here have spoken about her caring side, too. “Most people will say when they work with Sarina, she’s like a mum to us almost,” Michelle Agyemang said. “Like, she cares about our well-being, she knows how to turn it on when we need to improve our quality, for example, in training. She’s ready to step in and tell us, ‘That’s not good enough, let’s be better.’ So I think she has that fine balance, and she’s put a lot of trust in me, which I’m really grateful for.”
Aggie Beever-Jones, who like Agyemang is in her first major tournament, said Wiegman blends maternal instincts and managerial firmness.
“She’s so aware of tournament football and the toll it can have on you and how mentally draining it can be, just being in such a tight environment for however long,” Beever-Jones said. “So she lets our family come in, spend some nice family time together.”
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The players have also been impressed by her prematch speeches. “She’s really motivating, she gets us in a huddle, you’re listening to her — you’re holding on to every word she says. She’s upped her game for the motivational speeches,” Ella Toone said, adding that the one Wiegman delivered the night before the Italy game was particularly good.
Also key to the run to the final in Switzerland has been the squad’s unity. There are players who know they’re unlikely to get a single minute, but they’ve stayed united as a 23. The team’s “positive clicks” clique has helped, but Wiegman’s management is also integral.
“What really stands out to me is that she can keep everyone motivated, from the No. 1 to the last player,” Van der Most said. “And you can see that happening with England right now — everyone is willing to give their all. And that everyone is there to serve the team at that moment. And as a coach, you have to be able to do that. I think there are few coaches who can convey that so well.”
We’ve seen the bench save England against Sweden and Italy. Her messaging is clear, concise to the players. She told Agyemang “go and change the game” when she was brought on in the opener against France.
The tournament didn’t start as planned, with England going down 2-1 to France. But Wiegman was unflustered, having openly said that their group was as brutal as can be, and that it wouldn’t be like 2022. She admitted it had been tough after their win over Netherlands, but she stuck to her principles.
“Well, I found it hard too, of course,” Wiegman said. “I always knew ahead of this tournament that it was a very hard group. I just had to focus on my job, review well and think about how we could bring people together.”
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Euro 2022 was relatively straightforward as she kept the same XI together and, bar the Spain match and extra time against Germany, things largely went according to script. In the World Cup in 2023, England didn’t play well until the semifinal against Australia but were simply too strong. They needed the jeopardy of penalties against Nigeria in the round of 16, and a hard-fought win over Colombia in the quarters, but it never seemed as if they were going home early.
But in this tournament, things have been different. “I need to decompress,” Wiegman said after the Sweden match, where she admitted thinking England had been knocked out “four or five times.”
After the nail-biting win over Italy, Wiegman said this tournament has resembled a movie. Twice England were staring into the abyss of elimination in the knockouts, but somehow, they pulled it around.
There was the chaotic penalty shootout against Sweden, when England had come back from down 2-0 in normal time. Then there was the 96th-minute equalizer against Italy, and the 119th-minute winner. Even in times of strife like at halftime with Sweden when England were down, there was clarity over panic.
“She’s such a calming presence at halftime,” Esme Morgan said. “She just reinforced the things that we needed to tweak and do slightly differently.” And even in those frantic final moments, the players get perspective from Wiegman’s composure.
“It makes a massive difference in the 95th minute when you’re losing 1-0, and you look to the side and she’s very calm,” Walsh said. “That speaks volumes of her as a manager.”
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Through the turmoil, the players trust Wiegman’s judgement. “Weirdly, it didn’t feel chaotic,” Beth Mead said after the Sweden match. “I think if Sarina asks you to do it, you do it and as a player, you back yourself. Sarina knows what she’s doing, there’s method in the madness and I think that showed.”
That “madness” has driven England to this shot at history where they can become the first England team to win a major tournament on foreign soil Sunday. “Sarina is a great coach and one that we have a lot of respect for,” Toone said. “She knows how to get us to major finals, and I am buzzing.”
The players believe she is more relaxed around them compared to when she first took the job — like her singing “We Gaan Nog Niet Naar Huis” (the Dutch song “We’re Not Going Home Yet”) in the celebrations after the Italy win.
“My English has improved, so I understand a lot more, but also you learn more about people, you learn more about people you work with,” Wiegman said. “You learn more again about yourself and how you respond to things, and while I’m always working on developing the team and developing or trying to help development of people, I always try to keep developing myself.
“What I really wanted to do over all these years and trying to enjoy it a little bit more, trying to enjoy things a little bit more instead of always being so … you have to be focused in this job, you have to be focused, but you need to celebrate the moments that are good. It’s really nice.”
Fundamentally, her success is due in part to the players but also to her coaching nous and resolute belief in her own principles. And it’s that cocktail that has guided England to the brink of history, and to her fifth major tournament final in a row.
“I don’t know [the secret behind the success],” Wiegman said. “There’s one thing that I’m a lucky one to work with so many good people. Good players, good staff, good support from the federation with the FA this time, and before that, the Dutch FA. The only thing I think I could say is that I think I’m always myself.”
