Emma Hayes is on a mission to reinforce women’s professional football in the United States.
Hayes was hired as a head coach of the American women’s national team in June after a few years disappointing for the squad as it dealt with an aging lineup, coaching instability, and an increase in global competition.
In less than a year, they led the US team to an Olympic gold medal and won 2024 Bellon D’Or, as female football coach of the year – on high warnings to the world, by raising the world on a high warning that women’s football in the United States is back.
Nearly eight months after the US defeated Brazil in the Summer Olympic gold medal game in Paris, the teams will head with two upcoming friends in California on April 5 and 8.
Next to the team’s upcoming friendship, CNBC Sport talked to Hayes how the job is going on, the biggest surprise that came with it, its leadership style and the steps that we are taking, to make us a powerhouse again to women’s football.
Olympic size ambitions
In less than three months on the new job, Hayes found himself a leading team at the Paris Olympics, USA, after a 12 -year tenure as the head coach of Chelsea women, where he established himself as one of the top coaches in women’s football.
This can be a challenging challenge for many people, but Hayes said that he took it a day at a time.
Hayes told CNBC, “We all know the pressures and expectations that are in and around the team, but I wanted to create an environment where the players felt relaxed and quiet but extremely concentrated.”
The native of England said that she wanted to ensure that the players do not have to worry about the pressures outside.
“I think by creating that safe bubble, I allowed the players to completely sink themselves and so they express themselves the best way they can do on the pitch,” Hayes said.
The US women’s team returned to the podium for their fifth Olympic gold medal after defeating Brazil. The squad last won gold in 2012.
Hayes said about the victory, “Surprising for me was considering all the pressures, how much I would enjoy it.”
Football through female lens
The United States head coach Emma Hayes along the edge before playing Australia at the State Farm Stadium at Glendel, Arizona on 23 February 2025.
Brad Smith | ISI photos | USSF | Getty images
After the Olympics, Hayes focused on reconstruction of the program to maintain that success. She has focused her focus on areas such as creating a strong football pipeline for the future and designing training especially for women athletes.
Hayes said, “Everything we have revealed in our game is through a male lens, so we aim to address it and put the football game in a position, hopefully for so many players who can experience in the game very differently, and ideally through a female lens,” said.
Hayes said that mentality will apply to everything from the methods of recovery to strength and conditioning and even strategic information.
The 48 -year -old coach admitted that the change would do a lot of work and coach education and even new programs would be required.
“This is a very big project, but one is that we are very excited to participate,” he said.
The purpose of Hes is to use data, analytics and artificial intelligence from more productive methods.
For example, Hayes said that women traditionally have less power in their shots than men, but data shows that they actually score more than the distance than men’s games.
He said that from a smart ring like Aura, the data that tracks body temperature can help in training and recovery.
“I think without those data insight, perhaps we will not advance to our game that we want to do,” he said.
Next generation of football players
Emma Hayes of the United States spoke to her team on 25 February 2025 during the USWNT training at the San Diego FC Performance Center in L Kazon, California.
Brad Smith | ISI photos | USSF | Getty images
Hayes is also attracting its attention to the next generation of women’s football players. He said that he is worried about the number of players who have been out of the game.
Studies have shown that the increasing number of girls is getting out of the game when they collide with puberty for various reasons, including social expectations and lack of quality programs.
“I think it’s something that is to be addressed,” he said. “Dropout rates, in my honest opinion, can be avoided if we consider girls better.”
Hayes said that children should be done more to keep children in sports due to long -term influence on their lives.
He said that studies have shown that women athletes are more likely to be a successful business leader. The 2023 Deloite survey found that 85% of women playing in competitive games say the skills they learned were important for success in their professional career.
As she tries to overhall the American women’s program, Hayes is looking at the big picture. Career football coach said that she hopes she could have a permanent impact on the game she loves.
Hayes said, “It’s one thing to win on the field, and I am absolutely fun to do so, but I am about to leave the game in a better place and ensure that create a system and an environment where I may know, you can enjoy the game at a higher level,” Hayes said.
