International Women’s Day is on 8 March and with that in mind we have chosen Emma Hayes the Manager of Chelsea Women FC as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.
When injury halted her playing career at an early age she decided to study at Liverpool Hope College studying European Studies, Spanish and Sociology and then took a master degree in Intelligence and International Affairs.
Her first football coaching role as at Long Island Lady Riders in the USA and in 2006 she was part of the coaching staff at Arsenal Ladies during their very successful period where they won 11 trophies. She returned to the USA to coach in 2008 holding managerial positions in the Women’s Professional League including Chicago Red Stars.
In 2011 she returned to the and became the manager of Chelsea Women FC in 2012 replacing Matt Beard making her the only female manager in the league at that time.
Her time at Chelsea has been and continues to be extremely successful. Under her management the team has won the WSL 5 times, the FA Cup 4 times, the league cup twice, Community Shield once and were runners up in the Champions League in 2020 being the first female manager to reach the final for 12 years.
Emma has been the Manager of the Season 3 times and was named FIFA Best Women’s Coach in 2022.
In 2016 Emma was awarded an MBE and in 2022 she was awarded an OBE for services to football.
To find out more about Emma see here https://www.chelseafc.com/en/emma-hayes
To find out more about International Women’s Day see here