FIFA named its 10-person shortlist for its annual coach of the year award, and four of them are no longer with their teams.
Philippe Bergeroo, Vadao, Vera Pauw and Silvia Neid made the shortlist. U.S. coach Jill Ellis, the 2015 FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year, also made the list despite the United States’ quarterfinal exit at the Rio 2016 Olympics, the Americans’ worst-ever finish at a major tournament. Canada coach John Herdman is also up for the award after his team’s bronze-medal finish.
Bergeroo was fired from his post as coach of France’s women’s national team after another failure to make the podium at a major tournament in August at the Olympics. Pauw recently left her post as coach of South Africa, and on Tuesday, the Brazilian federation announced that Vadao has been replace as head coach by Emily Lima.
Silvia Neid stepped down as head coach of Germany after guiding the her country to its first Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer in August. The change was planned a year in advance, and brought to an end an 11-year tenure which included a World Cup title and Olympic gold medal.
This year’s award changed names to the “FIFA Best Women’s Coach” after FIFA earlier this year split from France Football and the Ballon d’Or for the annual awards. The change sees 50 percent of the decision based on the votes of all captains and head coaches of women’s national teams around the globe. The other 50 percent will be defined by the result of an online public ballot with football fans and the submissions from a selected group of over 200 media representatives from the six continents.
The 10 coaches nominated for the 2016 award are:
* Philippe Bergeroo (France/French national team)
* Jill Ellis (USA/US national team)
* John Herdman (England/Canadian national team)
* Silvia Neid (Germany/German national team)
* Vera Pauw (Netherlands/South African national team)
* Gérard Prêcheur (France/Olympique Lyonnais)
* Pia Sundhage (Sweden/Swedish national team)
* Oswaldo Vadão (Brazil/Brazilian national team)
* Martina Voss-Tecklenburg (Germany/Swiss national team)
* Thomas Wörle (Germany/FC Bayern Munich).