Brit Mark Parsons (34) succeeds Wiegman as national football players coach

Wiegman will say goodbye to the ‘Leeuwinnen’ at the Games next summer and then start working as England coach. She takes her assistant Arjan Veurink with her.

VS trainer

Parsons is now the coach of the American club Portland Thorns. He will continue to combine this role with his new position as Orange national coach until the end of the season in the United States in mid-November.

Parsons gets Jessica Torny as an assistant by his side. Torny, 40, is now the Orange Under 19 coach. Footballers will start qualifying for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand after the Games. Parsons debuts against the Czech Republic on September 17.

First lecture

Wiegman (51) announced in August last year that she would quit after the Games. Under the leadership of the former best soccer player, the Netherlands won the 2017 European Championship in their own country. During the 2019 World Cup in France, Orange reached the final, in which they lost to the United States (0-2). The women got their first participation in the Olympic football tournament in the world final.

The KNVB’s search for a successor to Wiegman took a long time. Director Jan Dirk van der Zee said late last year that the KNVB was looking for a “Sarina-plus”. “Someone who can outdo Sarina.” A woman or a man, a Dutchman or a foreigner; Van der Zee has always wanted to say little about it.

Clarity

Orange internationals have shown more and more forcefully in recent months that they find the search for a new national coach to be time consuming. They wanted to have clarity long before the Games. Two months before the start of the tournament, the KNVB presents with Parsons a foreigner as successor to Wiegman, who was chosen as the world’s best coach of a women’s team in 2017 and 2020.

Besides Wiegman, three other Dutch women have the highest educational qualifications: Vera Pauw, Hesterine de Reus and Torny. The latter will now gain experience at the highest level as an assistant to Parsons.

Talent view

“Jessica is not only a very talented coach, but also a true representative of women’s football in the Netherlands and therefore has that necessary feeling with women’s football in her baggage,” said Nico-Jan Hoogma, director of senior football at the KNVB.

“Additionally, due to her role as coach of the youth selections, she has unparalleled knowledge of the talents that roam the Netherlands and with her the next generation of lionesses. In this regard, she also complements Mark very well. . such a person in your own ranks, so it was an easy choice. “