Coach Emma Hayes means business. It’s the GOAT level of soccer management when you win five Women’s Super League championships in a row and then win an Olympic gold in the next job. Hayes has a high probability of thriving and winning titles in a far more competitive environment in men’s soccer. But she is quite sure that she won’t coach a high-profile men’s team any time soon. The English boss insisted that work needs to be done in the current milieu to accommodate female coaches in men’s soccer teams.

During her recent appearance on a BBC Radio interview, Emma Hayes was asked why female coaches are not often chosen by men’s teams. “You can find a female pilot, doctor, lawyer, banker. But you can’t find a female coach working in the men’s game leading men, just shows you how much work needs to be done,” said Hayes. Thereafter, the show host asked the USWNT coach to comment on the challenges female coaches have to outlive in a sexist environment.

“I think it’s just been a place which has just been the large majority have been males. And often people don’t think that maybe a female could manage a dressing room of male characters. I manage about 25 men every day. They’re just the staff I work with,” Emma Hayes added. The former Chelsea boss also revealed that players are never a problem for coaches, irrespective of their gender.

Anyhow, it’s not like coach Hayes never got an offer to coach a men’s team. But she grandly refused the offer in a gesture to uphold women’s soccer’s legacy.

Emma Hayes almost became a men’s team coach, but she rejected it

Amid her glorious Chelsea stint, Emma Hayes was quite close to joining the then-EFL League Two club AFC Wimbledon in 2021. Despite Wimbledon being a third-tier club, many claimed that coach Hayes got an upgrade from her Chelsea job. The London-born coach wasn’t ready to sit with these claims. “The world of football needs to wake up and recognize that, while the game is played by a different gender, it is exactly the same sport, and the qualities involved with having to manage that are exactly the same as they would be in a men’s team,” said Hayes.

She added that it is an insult to women’s soccer to say it is a step below the men’s game. She also dismissed Wimbledon rumors saying they could not afford her wages. So, as the US coach subtly hinted, in a world that thinks women’s soccer is below the men’s game, it won’t be a rosy task for a female coach to lead a men’s team. But if the ‘work’ gets done, maybe we could even see coach Hayes at the helm of a high-profile men’s team in the future. Would you like it? Tell us in the comments below.