US association boasts of record
Emma Hayes, overwhelmed with money, breaks barriers
November 15, 2023, 2:50 p.m
Emma Hayes is leaving Chelsea next summer, ushering in a new era in women’s football. The 47-year-old Englishwoman becomes the highest-paid trainer in the world in the USA. Your new employer is dealing with this very aggressively.
Whether it ends up being two, four, ten or whatever million dollars in annual salary for Emma Hayes? US Soccer left that open, but with the commitment of the 2021 world coach, the American association is pushing into new dimensions.
Hayes, who is under contract with Chelsea FC until the end of the season, will take over the four-time world champion USA next summer and become, as US Soccer boasted in the official association announcement, “the highest-paid women’s soccer coach in the world.” Hayes, said association president Cindy Parlow Cone, was “a fantastic leader.” The 47-year-old Englishwoman has “enormous energy and an insatiable will to win.”
Chelsea have benefited from this ambition for over a decade. Hayes has led the Blues to six English Championships and five FA Cup titles since 2012. This season she is chasing the Champions League trophy with German players Ann-Katrin Berger, Sjoeke Nüsken and Melanie Leupolz, among others, before taking up the job with Team USA in time for the Olympic Games.
“It is a great honor to be able to coach the most incredible team in the history of world football,” said Hayes and spoke of a “deep connection” to the USA. She, who began her coaching career in America at the beginning of the millennium, had “dreamed of coaching in the USA for a long time.”
A small aftertaste remains. The mother of a five-year-old son justified her withdrawal from Chelsea with her family life. In the future, she will train overseas as the “highest paid women’s soccer coach.” Your family will surely accompany you on this adventure. And Hayes will have a little more time.