00:07Ahead of the 2026 Men's World Cup, and alongside the 2025 Women's Euros,
00:13FIFA launched the third edition of its Elite Performance Coach Mentorship Program in Zurich.
00:19The 18-month program matches highly experienced coaches
00:23with those closer to the start of their coaching journey.
00:27You know, there's still a large discrepancy in the number of females going into coaching,
00:33and I think it's important that we try and balance that out
00:37in terms of trying to encourage more females to explore coaching as a profession.
00:42You know, when I was coming through, there was not a whole lot of role models
00:46in the women's game in terms of females in coaching.
00:49Now we see more and more, we see successful coaches on the female side,
00:52but I still think there are hurdles for females to overcome,
00:59to pursue a career in coaching.
01:02So I think here at FIFA, you know, what our job should be and is
01:05is to try and mitigate some of those barriers, you know,
01:09whether it's sort of a financial issue in terms of applying for coaching licenses,
01:14whether it's an awareness issue, whether it's a support issue.
01:17I think we should look at all the different ways
01:20that we can try and minimize the number of obstacles.
01:22Well, I think if we want to increase the number of females in coaching,
01:26we, you know, we have to be intentional in what we do,
01:28and that's creating programs, you know, such as our coaching mentorship program.
01:33So, you know, here's a program where, you know,
01:36we bring in experienced coaches from the female game
01:38and we partner them with young mentees, young females,
01:43that are coming through the game.
01:44And, you know, I think one of the things that, you know,
01:46I've said a lot is, you know, coaching can be very much an island
01:51and there isn't a natural support mechanism.
01:55The mentors include current national team coaches Desiree Ellis from South Africa,
02:00Joe Montemuro of Australia,
02:02and Angelo Marsiglia from Colombia.
02:07Among the young coaches is former Germany international midfielder Melanie Beringer,
02:12who won both the World Cup and an Olympic gold medal with her country.
02:17I'm a young coach, yeah,
02:20and I think I need, even in some situation when I have a question,
02:23I can ask him and that's for me, yeah,
02:26it's very good for me to help me.
02:27I think that is so important because sometimes when you're a coach,
02:32it can be a lonely position
02:33and you will need to have outside references
02:38that you can help and you can lean on in those moments.
02:43And I think this is an excellent opportunity to build those networks.
02:48It's also a really good tool to use for your own self-development
02:54and reaching your own personal goals and getting the tools in order to do so.
03:00I wish I had this.
03:02I did a lot of mistakes as a young coach,
03:04overconfident and stupid.
03:06And if I had a mentor at my time,
03:10which was not normal some years ago,
03:13I would avoid a lot of big errors I did in my career.
03:17So, yes, I think this is a good opportunity,
03:20especially for young female coaches
03:22because sometimes they have a harder route
03:24to high-performance coaching than men.
03:27So I think for them to have an opportunity
03:30to be in such a supportive environment,
03:33I think that's really good for them.
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