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United States ladies’s nationwide workforce head coach Emma Hayes was named the world’s greatest ladies’s soccer coach on Monday on the Ballon d’Or ceremony. Hayes guided Chelsea FC to a fifth straight English Ladies’s Tremendous League title earlier this yr earlier than instantly transitioning to educate of the U.S. and profitable the Olympic gold medal.
The award is the primary given out to coaches by the Ballon d’Or, which has honored the very best males’s soccer participant since 1956 and the very best ladies’s participant since 2018.
“It’s an absolute honor to be acknowledged for the achievements with each the U.S. ladies’s nationwide workforce and Chelsea,” Hayes mentioned. “I simply need to say an enormous thanks to all of the employees and gamers from each groups and I’ve some particular reward for the opposite nominees. They’re distinctive coaches and I’m proud to be in the identical firm as them.
“As everyone knows, soccer is a workforce sport and I’m very grateful to have led some superb groups this yr, so this award is for everybody who has been part of the U.S. workforce and Chelsea.”
5 U.S. ladies’s nationwide workforce gamers have been named to the 30-player shortlist for the 2024 Ladies’s Ballon d’Or. Ahead Sophia Smith completed fourth within the voting, whereas midfielder Lindsey Horan was fifth, ahead Mallory Swanson completed sixth and ahead Trinity Rodman was ninth. U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher completed seventeenth within the ultimate voting.
Spain and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati gained the Ballon d’Or for the second consecutive yr.
Hayes was on the sidelines for under 4 pleasant matches with the U.S. previous to the Olympics. She was employed by U.S. Soccer in November 2023 however the events agreed to let her end the European season with Chelsea. The U.S.’ gold-medal victory, a 1-0 win over Brazil that was clinched by Swanson’s objective, was solely Hayes’ tenth in cost.
Hayes was additionally gained the 2021 FIFA Greatest Coach award whereas at Chelsea.
