After England’s World Cup semi-final defeat of Australia, a grinning Millie Bright approached Sarina Wiegman with arms outstretched. The manager said something while shaking hands with Australia’s goalkeeper, Mackenzie Arnold, that made her captain pause before she waved Bright back in. Bright obliged, putting her arms round Wiegman and lifting her into the air.
It wasn’t the first time Bright had lifted aloft a grinning Wiegman and it likely won’t be the last. It has become ritualistic – perhaps there is now some superstition involved – and cameras wait for the much-loved manager’s embrace with her captain.
Bright’s hug is not just hers any more, it is the hug of a nation. Wiegman has achieved what no manager of the men’s or women’s team has done since 1966 and navigated an England senior side to a World Cup final. Even more impressively, she has done it one year after she delivered a first major tournament victory for her team, at a home European Championship, having done the same with the Netherlands in 2017.
The Dutchwoman has lost one game at a major tournament, the 2019 World Cup final against the USA with the Netherlands, and been beaten once in two years with England, in a friendly against Australia. She is a serial winner and, should she take her Lionesses past Spain on Sunday, she will have won everything there is to win with England.
“She’s not bad is she?” says a grinning Lucy Bronze, part of the England teams that lost World Cup semi-finals in 2015 and 2019. “This tournament she’s shown a different side to her; had to make changes, been the last woman standing for a couple of rounds now … Previously, people were saying she keeps the same team and she doesn’t change. She’s put in a lot of work this tournament to get us to the final and her experience has really shown through.”
This tournament has perhaps provided the biggest test of Wiegman’s managerial career. Curveball after curveball has been delivered with only one year separating the Covid-delayed Euros and the World Cup, retirements, injuries and the suspension of Lauren James during the competition. The death of her sister before the Euros is a loss Wiegman is still trying to deal with.
“I’m a pretty positive person but of course I also have feelings,” she says. “I feel very privileged to work with this team. It has been so great. You have some setbacks with some players that got injured, which was very sad for them, but then you have to switch and say: ‘OK, this is the group of players we think are the best and this is the team now. We are going to go to the World Cup with them.’ Then, of course, there are still things in my personal life. When someone passes away who is really close to you, you don’t just say: ‘Oh it’s two months now, it’s gone.’ I have strategies but of course sometimes that’s still sad and it is challenging for me too.”
Only she will know how well those strategies help her handle those off-field emotions. On the pitch the evidence of her managerial capacity is there for all to see. Wiegman has tinkered with the formation to bring out the best qualities of the available players and has changed things when needed, in particular after the injury to Keira Walsh and the James red card. The players have bought into each twist and turn. There is no doubting their boss, who has earned their trust.
Wiegman is, at heart, a people person. “What I really love is to work with people and work with very ambitious, talented people,” she says. “That gives me energy. What’s really nice, for example, is Katie Zelem. In April, I wanted to try out other things [so Zelem was left out of the squad] and then she came back into the squad, she makes the World Cup squad, she plays a very good game against China. That gives me energy … I could give plenty of examples for that. That’s what I enjoy so much.”
Being a people person is critical to her success. You can hear the impact in the words of the players, see it in the way they look when you ask a question about her influence on them, feel it in the relaxed atmosphere around the camp. She cares about the experience of her players, wants them to enjoy the moment and have fun because, as a player, that wasn’t the case for her.
“Sometimes I didn’t think I enjoyed it enough,” she said before the Euros last year. “I worked so hard. But you’re there, you’re doing what you love the most, you’re doing your best, so why don’t you just have fun, too? As I grew in my personality, I really wanted to be relaxed more. Why do players start playing football when they’re seven years old? It’s because they love the game. Yes, it’s all about winning, but you perform better when you can be yourself and when you’re in an environment – and it sounds like school – an environment where you’re safe, where you will not be judged. Because when you’re on the pitch you’re being judged all the time and that’s uncomfortable and unsafe.”
Her people skills are evident in the relationship with her assistant, Arjan Veurink, the pair so in sync in mind and process that it feels almost balletic. Wiegman credits Veurink with the switch to a back three for England’s third group game, against China, after the loss of Walsh to injury in the preceding match. She is not fazed by giving her former rival in the Vrouwen Eredivisie the floor; she is comfortable in herself and her skillset.
“We complement each other really well,” says Wiegman. “We have the same vision of football and people, how we want to treat people, because we’re working with people. When we started, I actually didn’t know him very well. I just knew him as my opponent. What I saw of his team, his players were always very respectful, he always had a very nice style of play and he always treated me with respect, so I thought he must be a good guy and he was a good coach, so we had a conversation and we started working together.
“At the beginning I did most things myself but then over the years we made that shift. We speak a lot with the rest of the technical staff too – it’s a group of technical staff. He does a lot of the executing of the things that we talk about. We know how we think. We trigger each other and we’re very critical too, so that keeps us sharp. That helps. I think we have a very, very good partnership and I hope we work together for a much longer time.”
That unified strategy and clarity of thought, with Dutch directness helping deliver their ideas to the team, have built a calmness into England’s camp. The players know the plan, know what it takes, know it works, and that has brought a ruthless patience to their play. Wiegman has freed them from the shackles of self-doubt and fear of failure. That is the “main difference” she has seen in the players since she took charge.
“We say: ‘Go and take action.’ Mistakes are part of football, mistakes are part of life. Everyone makes mistakes but you have to take action and accept the mistakes, but take action again. I always say: ‘If you take action, you can do something phenomenal and you can make a mistake.’ It can be both ways. I think that’s a big difference. Now everyone feels confident and comfortable to just take action and everyone is supporting each other.”
Now they must support each other through the biggest match of their careers, one that could secure sporting immortality. For Wiegman, the trophy and winner’s medal would be nice additions to her impressive haul. The greater prize, though, would be in the collective win, watching players be bold, playing without fear and with a smile on their faces.
A Woman’s Game by Suzanne Wrack (Guardian Faber Publishing, £9.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
