Parsons is the national coach during the 2022 European Championship in England, where the Netherlands will defend the title, and he should lead the women’s national team to the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
In the early months, Parsons combined his work as a national coach and coached his current team, the Portland Thorns in the United States, with whom he has succeeded since 2016 by winning a number of awards, including the championship.
Hubble
Parsons was born in England but holds a US passport, and will make his debut on September 17 in a World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic. He is the first foreign coach in the KNVB since Ernst Abel, who reached the final with the Dutch national team during the 1978 World Cup.
Parsons was previously active in Chelsea’s women’s division and coached the Washington Spirit, just like the Portland Thorns, a club from the top professional league in the United States, the NWSL. Parsons hopes to complete Pro License training, the highest coach diploma, this fall.
“I’m delighted with this great job,” Parsons said. The Netherlands has made history in recent years and football fans around the world have been inspired by the game and the way players present themselves. But before I finally came to Holland, I still had a great and important job in the Portland Thorns.
Jessica Tourney
Wegman announced in August last year that she would be heading to England after the Games. It was initially expected that the KNVB management would once again appoint a woman as the national trainer.
This now happens in the helper case. Jessica Tourney (40), who is already working in KNVB as a coach for the U-20 and U-19 teams, is the successor to Arjan Fiornik, who is going to England with Wegmann. The former international Tourney is the fourth Dutch woman with the highest coaching diploma after Vera Pau, Sarina Wijmann and Hestrin de Rios. “This is a great opportunity for me to gain experience at the highest level in the coming years,” said Tourney, who has played 62 caps.
Nico Jan Hogma, KNVB’s Director of Best Football, motivates Parsons’ appointment as follows: “Despite his young age, he is full of experience at the pinnacle of women’s football. He has also shown that he can improve talent and top players. With his arrival we also get “inside information” from the country that has been number one in the world for years. I think the entire KNVB could benefit from that.
