Lionesses on the coaching pathway

Two former Lionesses have spoken about their experiences after completing their UEFA A Licence course via England Football Learning at St. George’s Park.

Former England captain Steph Houghton and midfielder Izzy Christiansen were among a group of current and former players from the women’s professional game who took part in the 12-month programme which was tailored to fit around the playing schedules of professional players.

It formed part of a pledge for a long-term commitment to providing high-quality development opportunities for Barclays WSL and Barclays Women’s Championship players to kick-off their coaching careers and was fully funded by the FA, PFA and UEFA as part of a collective commitment to increasing female coaching opportunities.

As the highest practical coaching award available, the UEFA A Licence aims to develop technically and tactically proficient coaches, capable of nurturing players to perform effectively in the modern game.

Alongside Houghton and Christiansen, the likes of Karen Bardsley, Cheryl Edwards, Lisa Evans, Sophie Harris, Sophie Howard, Kim Little, Sandy MacIver, Aoife Mannion, Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Zećira Mušović, Samantha Tierney, and Lia Wälti also participated in the course.

“This year’s course was quite unprecedented,” said Matt Bishop, senior professional game UEFA A Licence lead.

“In previous years, we’ve probably had about three or four females per year, but to get 15 all in one go and to have the calibre of the candidates that we’ve had as well has been amazing.

“This is just the start of it, coaching is a career and a lot of the players are thinking about what’s next – obviously there’s coaching, management, media, etc, so what are they going to do when they finish playing?

“We’re certainly seeing more interest from players to get into coaching and that’s our job now, to try and get them to fall in love with coaching and help them establish a career once they’ve finished playing.”

We caught up with both Christiansen and Houghton afterwards to get their thoughts on the course and their coaching aims and ambitions.

How have you found the A Licence course overall?

IC: “It’s been very insightful, challenging and I’ve really enjoyed coaching week to week away from the course environment. It’s complimented what we’ve done on the course. It’s nice to be back at St. George’s Park this week at the end of the season to wrap up and reconnect with people from down south who we haven’t got to work with as much.”

SH: “It’s been really challenging to be honest. When you get here on the first day, you have an idea of what it’ll be like and it’s probably totally different to what I anticipated, but for me that’s what this is about, to challenge me as a person, as a coach, to make you think about how important every session is and how you set it up and how you work with people. I’ve really enjoyed that and it’s really made me think, think about football and coaching in a totally different way and I’ve been working with some great people, some great tutors so I can’t complain!”

How is it being part of this cohort of all-females on the A Licence?

IC: “I know it’s a new thing with the number of females on the course and that’s amazing, but I believe it’s where the game is at, there are some super intelligent females within the game and the more we can learn off each other is really great. Being on courses like this when we’re all here residentially when we’re all here together learning and having those conversations in and around the coffee machines, those sorts of things are really powerful for the growth of the game.”

SH: “It’s been really good, it’s been so lovely when we’ve all come together. Not only the females, but we’ve worked with some of the lads along the way and I think we’ve all inspired each other to try and get better and try and improve and challenge each other, but also to support each other. But yeah, the ultimate aim is to try and get as many female coaches into the game. We’ve got so many amazing players that potentially want to go into that pathway and now there’s more pathways open than ever so it’s important for us that we do lead the way in that sense, that there’s people like Casey Stoney who have done it before and have got a job and she’s been really successful, they can see that there’s a future in the game if you do go down that path.”

What are your ambitions for the future in terms of coaching?

IC: “I’m a very ambitious individual, but I’m also very self aware and understanding of the heat of the game moving forward. I know I have a good knowledge of the game but that I have loads more to learn and lots more practice I need to get in to be able to have the impact at the level of the game that I want to in the future. But I really enjoy what I do at the moment, working in the academy at Manchester City and I’d love to just continue to progress at that football club, learning from the coaches I’m around day-to-day and the players. So for me I’m not really going to hang a hat on where I want to be in the future, but knowing me and what I’ve already done in my life I’m quite ambitious so I’d like the think that’d stay the same in coaching.”

SH: “For me, coming into this A Licence, I just knew that I wanted to get this qualification to test myself and understand what I feel like when I coach. I knew that I liked it but I didn’t necessarily love it, but now I’m starting to get a bit of the bug. For me, it was to be able to qualify and pass the course to ultimately have my options open. Being part of the first-team environment for the past two months has definitely got my love of being part of a team back again, but who knows…”