How does England find its next Hayes or Wiegman? This is the first step

HATFIELD, England -- Arsenal trio Lia Wälti, Beth Mead and Kim Little would usually be trying to get the better of Chelsea goalkeeper Zećira Mušović on the pitch. Yet, on one crisp Friday afternoon at Hertfordshire Sports Village, they are working together to learn the skills needed to become a top manager as they take their first steps on UEFA's 'A' License course.

This season only a third of Women's Super League (WSL) managers are female, down from 50% last season after legendary Chelsea boss Emma Hayes and Aston Villa's Carla Ward departed. Of the current female managers, only two -- Crystal Palace's Laura Kaminski and West Ham's Rehanne Skinner -- are English. In the second-tier Championship, five of the 11 head coaches are female; in America's NWSL that number is just three from 14 after Casey Stoney's exit from San Diego Wave. In Australia, only two of the 12 A-League coaches are women.

So, to inspire more female coaches in England, the Football Association (FA), Professional Footballers Association (PFA) and UEFA launched a year-long, fully funded 'A' License course for 17 former and current female players who already have their 'B' License, designed specifically for women's football and planned around their playing schedules.

The full group includes established names like Karen Bardsley, Steph Houghton, and Vivianne Miedema, but at the first London regional session, there are the four current players alongside recently retired Watford goalkeeper Sophie Harris. The Arsenal trio saw the opportunity as too valuable to pass up, driven by their desire to give back and expand their post-playing career options, while Musović, eager to keep learning, joined to deepen her knowledge of the game.

"I feel like I've got a new pair of glasses," the 29-year-old tells ESPN. "I'm looking at the game in such a different way. I've always been kind of reflective, but this has given me another level. Even in team meetings, I see things from a different perspective. I understand what Sonia [Bompastor] and the team wants. I can see a drill and understand how this applies to our game model."

The 'A' License is geared towards the principles of the 11 vs. 11 game with older age groups and focuses on advancing the tactical skills needed to thrive as a manager. The coaches take groups of academy kids through drills, focusing on each third of the pitch and working on systems in and out of position. They started with a two-day camp at St. George's Park before having regional sessions every six weeks to implement the theory they have been working on each week, usually on a Friday.

"We have more tactical elements where before it's more technical," Wälti tells ESPN. "Now, we can work with players who are already quite well educated in football."

There's no guarantee that these players will one day emulate the most successful female coaches in the game, like Hayes or England manager Sarina Wiegman, but they are taking the first significant step on their journey. So what does it take to succeed? And how do the current players balance their studies with their busy careers?

Stepping out of the comfort zone

A few months ago, the course kicked off with a two-day residential camp at England's HQ at St. George's Park, blending practical and classroom-based learning. On Friday Oct. 18, the session involved coaching girls from the Arsenal academy on attacking skills needed in the final third. What's clear is that every player is different.

"I think it's very different, and we both [Wälti] actually find it quite hard," Arsenal captain Little tells ESPN. "We're not the loudest, so we don't project our voice in the loudest way. We're more quiet leaders. Doing coaching is quite different to that because you have to be loud and clear to the players, which I definitely find quite hard and uncomfortable. But [we] feel like it's a good thing to have in your life, constantly being pushed out of your comfort zone. I think it's good for us in terms of our growth."

The way in which Little and Wälti lead their session starkly contrasts with how Mead and Harris operate. The former stood on the sidelines, their verbal instructions hard to hear, and communicated more through physical demonstrations. The latter pair were loud and vocal, giving clear, direct instructions -- though Harris has more experience given she already runs her own coaching company.

"We're the opposite to them two, literally," Mead laughs. "They put the loudmouths together and the quiet ones together. I think we've all got different personalities and leadership and coaching styles. I know Kim; I've played with her for many years at Arsenal. She's a captain and a leader, but she doesn't say a lot. She acts, it's from what she does instead of what she says. And I can understand that it's harder [for her to be vocal].

"You put your playing style across a different way; you've got different personalities. Same in coaching. I think it's how you apply yourself and put yourself across. They'll probably say we were a little bit more vocal than them [Little and Wälti], but it's still very different information that you're giving and receiving. So it's about trying to get it right and give that information in the most positive and clear way to the girls that we can."

FA professional development coach Steve Greaves has seen all types of managers during his career and the course has a section on "coaching behaviours," which allows the players to understand more about the different ways of working. Ultimately, they will be allowed to lead in whichever form suits them best. However, they will regularly be pushed out of their comfort zones.

"Quiet leadership is absolutely fine if that's their chosen way of working," Greaves says. "We would, however, at points in the course, challenge them to come outside of that because it might well be appropriate at certain moments. We will ask them to do things that are outside their comfort zone deliberately in order that they grow their coaching craft or their skillset."

Balancing life as a player

Although the course is designed to train the next generation of female coaches, all four current players agreed that the first few months have already improved their playing abilities. The group led two sessions during their time. Mead and Harris guided academy players through final-third drills, focusing on possession and tactical gameplay; Harris, a former goalkeeper, aided in players' movements in front of goal. It was a similar drill setup for the trio who took over after half an hour, but Little, Musović and Wälti changed the shape of the attack they were working with.

But undertaking the course is a hefty commitment for professionals who already have a packed schedule of WSL and Champions League football. The pro quartet have all had to give up several days for training camps, as well as some Friday afternoons for theory sessions, as well as plenty of time for leading training exercises to complete their practical booklet.

Chelsea goalkeeper Musović was playing a Champions League group-stage match in the Netherlands the night before the session and landed back in the U.K. on Friday at 4 a.m. By 3 p.m. she was fully alert and engaged in everything she was doing -- keen to learn more about her teammates' movements in various match scenarios.

"I feel like I've gained another tool of how I can take the next level in my game, which I'm so happy about," she says. "Communication and that leadership skill is such a massive part of me as a goalkeeper."

The Sweden international also insisted that she has always loved to question why the team are doing things and why certain drills are valuable, adding: "If I was a pest before to the coach, I think I'm a bigger pest now."

Meanwhile, Mead spent Friday morning with Arsenal, training and preparing for Sunday's WSL game at West Ham United [a 2-0 win] before giving up her afternoon to attend the regional session.

"I think you see things differently when you come into this role as a player," she says. "I know I'm very much honed in on what I'm meant to be doing as a forward and a winger, but what does it look like for everybody else on the pitch? How can I affect people on the pitch on a different level of being a coach?

"I think the important thing that we've come away with from today is how we can affect more than one person on the pitch in different positions and different roles? I'm very much wrapped up in my role as a wide forward, but sometimes it's nice to understand other positions and how that looks on the pitch.

"We get so frustrated in training sometimes that we're doing repetitive drills of pressing and buildup, but we're sat here today and we're trying to get these girls to understand it so that becomes easier. Even us as senior internationals who play at a high level still sometimes struggle with these things."

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Developing a coaching style and learning from the best

Greaves and PFA coach educator Nevin Saroya do not want to assign players a certain style, but instead give them the framework to deliver sessions specific to how the players want to coach. For some, like Musović, figuring out the kind of manager they want to be is easy. She has already identified and adapted her style from some of those who she has worked under before, citing the likes of Hayes as her inspiration.

"I believe in leading other people to lead. That's my mantra ... I like Emma's way of working and I see a lot of similarities in how I think compared to how she thinks; we've had great discussions over the years," she says. "I want my players to be creative. I want them to have freedom, and I want them to have the confidence they're the best in the world.

"I've played professional football since I was 15 or 16 years old, so it feels like I've been coaching since then. [In] the goalkeeper position, you're standing at the end of the pitch, you see the whole pitch; it's almost like I do coaching every day.

"I was having an interesting discussion with [Chelsea coach] Sonia the other day about the goalkeeper's role being really similar to a coach -- you see the same things and have the same frustrations when things are not working because you can't really affect it as you're far away. I think it's an interesting one, and I definitely think there should be more goalkeepers becoming coaches."

The Arsenal trio have taken a lot from different coaches, such as keeping things simple and working closely with each individual player, but is it is former manager Joe Montemurro, who led the Gunners from 2017-2021, who made the most impact on them before he left for Juventus.

"I think we both probably love a lot of things about Joe [Montemurro], but that's more because maybe his personality is a bit similar to ours where there are coaches who have a completely different personality," Wälti says. "From each coach I had in my career, I think I could look up to certain things, and I think they all had obviously their strengths and I mean in the end we tried to build all these things together and take that from them."

International coaches can also play a big role in a player's development and Mead, while pointing out that those who had a playing career themselves are more aware of the need for downtime and switching off, insisted that her biggest inspiration in terms of style has come from playing under Wiegman for England.

"I know quite a lot of my coaching style has come down from my time with Sarina [Wiegman]," she says. "Joe had some style rules that I like to live by, but you pick up little bits that that could hopefully work for you.

"I think the role as a manager is not always as easy as it looks. You've got some tough decisions to make. Not everybody is going to like you. There are snippets of each coach that you try and hone into to try and mold your philosophy. But I don't think any of us will be perfect. I don't know a manager who is perfect. But we've all got our ways of trying to go about things and taking points from each coach that we've played under."

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More opportunities will lead to more female coaches

Greaves emphasises that although the UEFA 'A' License equips players with the fundamentals to become a coach in the future, it's not a job guarantee. The course provides all the learning and tools to become an effective coach and they must complete all modules and worksheets in order to pass. However, Greaves, if he feels the player needs more support before being able to walk into a coaching job, may defer the graduation.

At this point, more support is offered to the coach to prepare them better. Despite some major obstacles within the infrastructure of women's football, with far more opportunities for men, Little remains optimistic and believes that as the profile of the game grows, this imbalance will shift towards more female coaches getting a chance.

"Obviously there's been a huge development in women's game and I think naturally then some male coaches have come across," she says. "But hopefully over time, and with the right opportunities for ex-players and other women who want to get into roles within football, that that pool does grow. When the quality grows, that will then feed into there being more female coaches within WSL clubs and the highest clubs in the world."

The lack of opportunities for female managers has been key to all the players' participation in the course, and is a major motivation for them to try and change something in the future. The FA revealed in their report for women's and girl's football that there has been an 88% increase in female coaches from 2020 to 2024.

In the new strategy spanning the next four years, the FA hopes to create more opportunities for female coaches across the board by identifying gaps and ensuring the learning landscape is fit for purpose. They also plan "turbo-charging top talent through coach development opportunities," which is reflective of this inaugural 'A' License course.

"I felt like I was in a privileged enough position to be able to help push trying to get more females into the game," Mead says. "There's a lot of different factors to it. There's a lot of successful female coaches in the game at the moment -- you look at Emma, Sarina. They're there, but there's not enough of them. Having this kind of diversity is also important to unlocking potential across the board and ensuring that the game is in the best possible place going forward."

Musović adds: "I want as many different people to be involved as possible, because we're talking about my perspective as a goalkeeper compared to Beth's perspective as an outfield player. We have different expertise, we have different strengths, we have different weaknesses, and we can build a team where we can complement each other.

"I think that's the best way. That's my philosophy, that's something that I believe in: find different people who are good at different things and build a team on that."