Sarina Wiegman has denied she has signed a new contract with the Football Association to extend her time with the Lionesses beyond 2025.
“I already have a contract until 2025 and I am very happy with the contract I have,” said the 52-year-old manager, who led England to a first major trophy since 1966 in the summer.
“I feel very valued. We have, hopefully, a couple of more tournaments until that time. It’s very comfortable at the moment and we are all happy. I am happy, the team is happy, the FA is happy and I just hope we will keep it that way.”
Truss meets Lionesses
Liz Truss has met the Euro 2022-winning team, giving them their first prime ministerial meeting since they became the first England football squad to win a title for 56 years.
More than two months after their victory, the Prime Minister watched the women’s team take part in a training match for around three minutes at the Lensbury Resort in south-west London. Ms Truss held up the European trophy with the help of defender Lucy Bronze after posing for a team photo.
The PM then joined some of the squad in singing happy birthday to Football Association’s director of women’s football Baroness Sue Campbell on the pitch.
Ms Truss, who declined to take questions from the press during her visit, will hold a meeting with captain Leah Williamson and defender Lotte Wubben-Moy, who was the driving force behind a letter demanding action to boost girls’ access to football.
She joined them as they hold a training camp following their victory over the USA and ahead of another friendly against the Czech Republic on Tuesday. The team will dedicate the Brighton fixture to the Football Association’s (FA) “let girls play” campaign for equal access.
The Lionesses play the Czech Republic at Brighton’s Amex stadium on Tuesday night after a 2-1 win against USA, the World Cup holders, at Wembley on Friday. The USA head coach, Vlatko Andonovski, named England as serious contenders for the World Cup next summer in Australia and New Zealand but Wiegman was dismissive of whether that put additional pressure on her team.
“I would have expected him to say that. I think a lot of our other competitors will say that. They did that a lot during the summer too, to put pressure on us. They were saying we had to win. Well, we really wanted to win and we had to play well. That’s what we can control. We try to get better all the time and then we’ll see what that brings us.”
The England right-back, Lucy Bronze, said their run of 23 games unbeaten under Wiegman was down to their ability to focus on each opponent. “It’s fantastic that we’ve not been beaten under Sarina – magic Sarina,” she said with a grin, before Wiegman chipped in with “magic team”.
Should Bronze play in Brighton it will be her 100th cap. “I was told at 20 years old that I wouldn’t play past 27 and now I’m 30,” she said. “I’m not doing too bad. That’s why I never set 100 caps as a goal for England, I just wanted to play as much as possible.
I’ve just had to work hard on being focused, doing everything right and just hope for the best.”
