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Sarina Wiegman has been named England Coach of the Year. In the Netherlands, the choice did not fall on The Hague coach who led the English footballers to the European title last summer, but on short track coach Jeroen Otter.
Under Wiegman, England won every match in the European Championship, including the final against Germany at a packed Wembley (2-1 after extra time). As a result, the English women won their first major award. It was England’s first title since winning the Men’s World Cup in 1966.
“I feel honoured, but modesty is also in order,” Wiegman said during the BBC. “Without the fantastic group of players, I could never have achieved this. And we had a great coaching staff. Everything was fantastic. I was lucky to work with these players.”
Wiegman, 52, moved from Orange Women to England after the Tokyo Olympics last year. With the Netherlands, she has already become European champion in 2017. Since the appointment of The Hague, the English are unbeaten in all of their 26 games. England have also qualified for next summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Remarkably enough, Wiegman did not win an award at the Dutch Sports Gala on Wednesday. The jury and the athletes preferred Otter, who won three gold medals as the national coach of the short track team at the Beijing Olympics. Suzanne Schulting and the women’s relay team won the medal for Otter.
At the English sports gala, almost all of the prizes went to the English football team. Football players were named Sports Team of the Year. European Championship top scorer Beth Mead has been crowned Sports Personality of the Year. Mead is Vivianne Miedema’s life partner. Both are currently out with a serious knee injury.
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