\u201cGetting to the top is easier than staying at the top,\u201d says Sarina Wiegman. And this may be true.<\/p>\n
Yet the England coach stands as the ultimate living, breathing contradiction to her own argument. Wiegman, after all, first became The Best FIFA Women\u2019s World Coach in 2017 and, ever since, has continued to dominate her profession\u2019s most prestigious award.<\/p>\n
She now has four of them to her name \u2013 no-one else has won more the honour more than once \u2013 and has also featured among the finalists in each of the last seven years. Anyone, however, expecting that familiarity would breed a blas\u00e9 attitude to claiming this award would be advised to think again.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m a little overwhelmed,\u201d Wiegman told FIFA in her first interview after further extending her record tally. \u201cI’m so honoured that I’ve won this award again and I would never, ever take this for granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually didn\u2019t expect it. I\u2019ve had a good run with the England team but lots of teams have done really well and the performances of other coaches have been so, so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good, yes, but not quite good enough to knock Wiegman off her perch. Pushed, though, for the secrets to her ongoing success, the Lionesses coach responded in typically unassuming fashion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t have any secrets,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just working hard, trying to do my best to connect with the teams I work with. I’ve also been privileged to work with very good people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mary Earps certainly fits that description, and in being named The Best FIFA Women\u2019s Goalkeeper for a second successive year, she too became an awards record-setter.<\/p>\n
This latest honour, which is partially determined by votes from football fans, follows hot on the heels of the England star\u2019s coronation as BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The fact that, too, is voted for by the public is, says her coach, no accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cMary\u2019s a little bit extrovert, so she connects with the fans a lot,\u201d said Wiegman. \u201cAnd of course she spoke up [about Nike failing to replicas of her goalkeeper shirt ahead of the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup].<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it starts with the performances and she’s had an incredible two years with us. She’s performed to a really, really high level. We’re really happy that she’s in our team, and of course that she\u2019s being recognised tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cGetting to the top is easier than staying at the top,\u201d says Sarina Wiegman. And this may be true. Yet the England coach stands as the ultimate living, breathing contradiction to her own argument. Wiegman, after all, first became The Best FIFA Women\u2019s World Coach in 2017 and, ever since, has continued to dominate her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":929155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-929152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=929152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/929155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=929152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=929152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=929152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}