FA keen to speak with coach Wiegman on extending England deal

England’s Football Association (FA) will have a conversation with coach Sarina Wiegman on extending her contract which runs until 2025, the governing body’s head of women’s football said on Monday after their European Championship triumph.

England secured a 2-1 victory over Germany in Sunday’s final to claim their first major title in front of a record crowd on home soil

The success meant Wiegman became the first manager to claim the Euros with two nations having led her native Netherlands to the title in 2017, prompting calls for an extension to her four-year contract which came into effect in September 2021.

“She will have a couple of weeks off. When she gets back, we’ll have a conversation,” the FA’s Sue Campbell told the BBC. “She needs a holiday. She’s done an incredible job. You have to remember she only came in in September.

“Everybody said to me, ‘do you think she can win the Euros?’ and I said, ‘it’s a very short time span that.’ But my goodness, she has moulded the team together. Not just the players, the team around her.

“There’s a togetherness. You have to be in it to feel it. When we interviewed her, we knew we were getting the best tactical and technical coach in the world. What we didn’t know was that we were getting this exceptional human being.”

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FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said he hoped Wiegman would be with the team for a long time, describing her as a “really special person and a really special talent.”

“We were delighted to secure her, even though in our wildest dreams, we thought that this tournament might be too early,” Bullingham said.

“We weren’t sure we would win this one. We were hoping we would win one in the future, so she achieved brilliant results earlier than we could have ever hoped.”