Not every good player can become a coach, and not every good coach may have been a good player. There are very few people who have a good job as both a player and a coach. And Christen Press already knows where she stands.
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“Oh no. Tobin [Heath] always says when I’m like making jokes like that, she always goes, ‘Oh, she was a number nine,’ so I think that means that I didn’t really see the game from like a coach’s perspective because I was really focused on doing my job, which was scoring goals,” said the former USWNT star.
Being a top player can open coaching doors, but staying there requires different skills. The head coach must manage players, prepare teams, make decisions, and answer with results.
Soccer has shown that being a great player does not always guarantee that you will turn into a successful manager. Players like Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, and Gary Neville have moved to managing and found it far harder than their playing careers. That reality helps explain why Christen Press quickly said no when asked about her moving into coaching.
Press understood that scoring goals came to her naturally, but coaching has never felt like her path.
Press admitted she was a number nine, focused on doing her job rather than focusing on coaching. That meant finding spaces, making runs, finishing chances, and helping her teams win games. She never really saw football through a coach’s eyes while building her career.
Still, that does not mean Christen Press lacks something valuable to offer future players. Tobin Heath believes Press can teach attackers something that very few people teach, especially well.
And Heath knows that personally because she claimed Press helped teach her how to score goals. “News to me,” Press responded jokingly.
Press has plenty of evidence behind that belief after years spent leading the American attack. She finished her USWNT career with 155 appearances, 64 goals, and 43 assists.
Those 64 goals place her ninth on the USWNT’s all-time scoring list. She also won 2 World Cups, scoring against England in the 2019 World Cup semifinal. That goal came early, when Christen Press headed Kelley O’Hara’s cross past goalkeeper Carly Telford.
Her club career offered another glimpse, with 23 goals earning Sweden’s Golden Boot in 2013.
That scoring record is exactly why Heath can still see Press entering coaching someday. If Heath built a coaching staff, she said Christen Press would be her first choice. Not necessarily for managing an entire team, but specifically for helping attacking players improve. That could give Press a coaching role built around the skill she knows best.
She may never want the pressure that comes with sitting in the head coach’s seat. But if attackers need someone who understands scoring, Press already has a strong case.