BEV PRIESTMAN
Gold medal-winning coach getting the recognition she deserves
Bev Priestman’s journey to Olympic gold began as a 12-year-old attending futsal sessions in her native northeast England. The classes were run by John Herdman, a part-time university lecturer, who combined the sessions with teaching sports science and coaching Sunderland youth teams.
Herdman’s most high-profile graduate was Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, but his real protégé is Priestman. Now, they work alongside each other in Canada; Herdman coaching the men’s team to a rare tilt at World Cup qualification, and Priestman leading a women’s team that ended years of near-misses by winning the Tokyo Olympic football tournament.
It is a long way from Consett to Canada, especially via New Zealand, which is where Priestman joined Herdman as his assistant for the international women’s team. Having played briefly at Everton she realised she wouldn’t make a top-class player; coaching offered an alternative route.
In four and a half years in New Zealand she learned a lot about coaching, before following Herdman to Canada, working with the youth programme and assisting the national team as they won a second consecutive bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics.
In 2018 Herdman took charge of Canada Men’s team, and Priestman returned to England as Phil Neville’s assistant with the Lionesses.
“The best thing I did was go back to England and work with Phil,” she said later. “It was important to experience different ideas and a different way of working. But I wouldn’t be here without the support I had from John.”
The pair steered England to the 2019 World Cup semi-finals, but when Neville quit to coach David Beckham’s Inter
Miami, Priestman was overlooked as his replacement.
Back she went to Canada, arriving as first choice with the message: “We need to change the colour of the medal.”
Nine months later Canada arrived in Japan with a reputation of being hard to beat but, with the great Christine Sinclair finally on the wane, struggling for goals.
That turned out not to matter. Four goals, one win, three draws and a successful penalty shootout took them to the semi-finals, where they faced the old foe from across the 49th parallel.
Jessie Fleming’s penalty sent the US to a 1-0 defeat, Canada’s first victory in the fixture for 20 years. Fleming also scored from the spot in the final with
Sweden, another 1-1 draw. The Chelsea midfielder, like so many of the team a youth international under Priestman, kept her nerve again as Canada won the penalty shootout. The colour of the medal was now gold.
“She instilled this belief and bravery that maybe we hadn’t had in the past,” said Sinclair afterwards of Priestman.
For the quietly determined 35-yearold, the final was as status-altering as for any of her players.
“When I arrived back in Canada people were stopping me in the street and paying for meals,” she said. “It feels like my life’s changed overnight but it feels really, really good.”