JILL ELLIS
“Even if you’re on the right track – if you sit there, you’ll get run over.”
Jill Ellis wasn’t satisfied when she took over the US Women’s national team in 2014. They were Olympic champions, ranked first in the world and hot favourites to win the World Cup the following summer in Canada – but their new manager was unimpressed.
As Ellis saw it, they’d been favourites to win the past three World Cups, but failed each time since 1999. What difference does such status make if you don’t win? The message behind her pitch had been quite clear several months earlier, when interviewing for the biggest head coach role in women’s football.
On her first day at the training ground, Ellis informed a talented group of players that they wouldn’t win the next tournament. Not if they continued to rest on their laurels, anyway. The hard work was just starting, she said – and if they bought into her ideas, the US would blow their competition away.
Ellis soon proved that she was a woman of her word. The USA bagged back- to- back world titles under her stewardship, winning at France 2019 for the most gruelling of them all. With the quality of women’s football higher and more competitive than ever before, the USA’S semi- final win over England was particularly edgy, as the
Lionesses squandered a spot- kick that would have dragged the game into extra time.
Ellis welcomed the sport’s huge leaps over recent years – even if it made her life harder.
“The better other countries are, the better it forces us to be,” she said. “I want to be in an environment where I’m forced to work hard to be successful. It makes it more rewarding.”
While Portsmouth- born in 1966, Ellis moved to the US with her family at the age of 15. Her father was a commando and an FA- licensed coach, and she would watch from the sidelines as he put the Combined Services team through its paces at training every day.
Ellis was inspired by the manner in which her father communicated with the players, and his dedication to improving the small margins that could have a big impact.
Following a successful career playing college soccer, Ellis dived into management with the drive that later became her trademark. Having worked as an assistant for top university sides, she eventually joined the US national team’s youth divisions, travelling the world compiling scouting dossiers.
Such graft paid dividends when she landed the USA job in 2014, ready to make history as the winner of two Women’s World Cups.
And there ended the journey: Ellis stepped down in October and was succeeded by Reign FC boss Vlatko Andonovski. It’s hard to envy him.