“You can’t find a female coach working in the men’s game leading men,” Emma Hayes once boldly remarked, criticizing the lack of opportunities for women in the beautiful game. Indeed, an issue worth reflecting on, as the silent battle for women to gain the recognition they deserve, still continues today. Though we don’t know about a woman coaching a men’s team, how about a female player breaking into an exclusive FIFA group—one that has long been a domain of revered men? In this case, Tobin Heath absolutely deserves the spotlight.

Earlier this month, FIFA introduced an exclusive Technical Study Group (TSG) for their ongoing Club World Cup 2025, who are tasked with providing advanced match analysis to enhance the global knowledge of the game. Led by FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger, the expert panel includes Esteban Cambiasso (Argentina), Aliou Cissé (Senegal), Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany), Roberto Martínez (Spain), Gilberto Silva (Brazil) and TSG lead Pascal Zuberbühler (Switzerland).

Remarkably, invited to the panel is also Tobin Heath, making her the first woman in the FIFA Technical Study Group to analyze a men’s tournament for the FIFA Club World Cup. This only saw Heath’s former USWNT teammate and significant other, Christen Press, shower huge praise on this feat. “I like it when you’re first, so brava,” Press began while speaking on the latest episode of the RE—INC podcast.

The Angel City star underlined how incredible it is for Heath to be the only woman working alongside “extremely accomplished, tenured coaches,” even though the former Seattle Reign star doesn’t have a coaching license and the fact that she’s much younger than them. “When I look at the photo, I giggle,” added Christen.

Interestingly, it only made the 36-year-old curious and asked Heath whether she feels intimidated about giving her take on the game to some of the greatest minds of football. To which Tobin replied, “No, absolutely not. Well, one, I’m by far, the most experienced winner as a player in that room,” leaving Press impressed.

Notably, aside from identifying tactical patterns and emerging trends during the tournament, and highlighting them using insights and data from FIFA’s Football Performance Insights team, the group is also responsible for selecting individual award winners and the fair play award at FIFA tournaments. This will help them also identify broader trends that exist in coaching education and player development.

While the job certainly comes with great responsibility, the most impressive aspect is, of course, seeing Tobin Heath included—despite being the youngest among the names mentioned. Even if the former Manchester United star doesn’t feel intimidated by working alongside such revered figures from the men’s game, she surely understands the weight of the moment.

Tobin Heath shares her experience with the FIFA Technical Study Group

Aside from bringing her own expertise to the table, Tobin Heath is much more focused on learning from the great minds of the TSG. “I am coming in with a little bit of reverence and humility,” she continued in a similar segment. “And I would hope the same would be true if any of these men were to do a technical study group for the women’s game because if this time has given me any clear understanding, it is how different the men’s and women’s game is.”

The former USWNT forward explained that this understanding from the study is not only from a tactical perspective. Rather, it’s more about the cultural aspects, the motivation, and the players’ experiences that mark a huge role in analyzing these trends. Without these contexts, even the most data-driven insights won’t make any sense.

Given how there are millions of data points in soccer, the collected data will be insignificant until it has been used and interpreted correctly. And what better way to do it than for the data that actually matters—something that is best done by those who’ve lived the game firsthand? Well, this blend of insight, experience, and storytelling is exactly the kind of work Tobin Heath is passionate about.

“I talk about marrying the art and the science of football—and that in itself is both an art and a science. Everyone comes at it in a different perspective and does it differently,” added Heath. She shared how she found it cool and fascinating to see Roberto Martínez and Arsène Wenger—who once faced each other from opposite dugouts in a tactical battle—now working together in the same group.

The 2x World Cup winner emphasized that the ultimate goal of their work is to democratize the game and the information surrounding it. Consider major tournaments, say, the World Cup. Now, for a successful and affluent team like the U.S. Women’s National Team, they have all the kinds of extensive resources, be it data analysts, sports scientists, large support staff, and the biggest budgets.

And they end up facing a team like Thailand, who, in contrast, have little to no access to data, limited staff, and minimal funding or expertise. But with the help of this study, that won’t be the case anymore. “All of this analysis that is happening at the most elite level is being given free. You can go on the FIFA Training Center right now and get all of the data,” Tobin added.

She noted that the need for individual sports scientists or data analysts may decline in the future, as this level of analysis will soon be accessible to everyone—not just top-tier nations or those with the biggest budgets. “To me, that changes the landscape of sport and that’s exactly what FIFA should be doing,” concluded Heath.

Indeed, this is quite a huge step from FIFA to further safeguard and elevate the competition of soccer. Indeed, Tobin Heath must be grateful for this opportunity!