By Samuel Akpan
History was made in European football when Helen Nkwocha stepped up as the first woman to lead a top-flight men’s side, taking the reins at Faroese club Tvoroyrar Boltfelag.
Despite the team’s challenging position—sitting at the bottom of the table and facing certain relegation—Nkwocha accepted the caretaker role without hesitation.
While many see her as a pioneer, she remains humble, attributing her appointment to her relentless work ethic and tactical expertise rather than a desire to break barriers.
Drawing on her extensive background in youth development plus senior roles in the United States and China, she feels well prepared for the intense scrutiny that accompanies the position.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Nkwocha said she anticipates tougher examination but hopes her path will inspire other women to chase high-level coaching posts.
She also commended Tvoroyrar Boltfelag for their progressive mindset in appointing her.
Her breakthrough comes as part of a growing but still rare group of women who have stepped into men’s professional dugouts across Europe.
In England, Hannah Dingley made headlines in 2023 when she became the first woman to manage a professional men’s side, taking the helm at Forest Green Rovers.
“I am the first and it’s great but I don’t want to be the first and the only,” Dingley declared after her appointment, looking ahead to a future where such milestones no longer make news.
France led the way earlier, with Helena Costa appointed manager of second-division Clermont Foot 63 in 2014 and earning the tag “Mourinho in a skirt” from her earlier Chelsea connections.
The Portuguese coach had already guided Iran’s and Qatar’s women’s national teams, worked with Benfica’s male youth squads and scouted for Celtic.
Her stay lasted barely a month before she quit, alleging male colleagues had pushed her aside and turned her into a mere publicity “face”.
Club president Claude Michy reacted sharply, stating: “She’s a woman so it could be down to any number of things … it’s an astonishing, irrational and incomprehensible decision.”
Costa later moved to Watford as head of scouting.
Corinne Diacre followed directly at the same French club.
A decorated former France international with more than 100 caps and frequent captaincy duties, Diacre took the men’s job in 2014 before steering the French women’s team to the 2019 World Cup.
She refused to be labelled a barrier-breaker and simply wanted to coach.
In 2018 she told The Guardian: “In doing all my coaching studies and badges, I have never, ever, had any training module that says: ‘If it’s women this is how you coach, and if it’s men that is how you coach.’ We are talking about football.
“Obviously, men and women have specific characteristics but the only real difference is physical, athletic.”
Her national-team tenure ended in 2023 with dismissal after tensions over team culture; Diacre branded the complaints “slander” and “dishonesty”.
Italy’s Carolina Morace holds the distinction of being Europe’s very first female coach of a professional men’s team when she led Serie C outfit Viterbese in 1999.
A legendary striker who topped Serie A’s scoring charts for 12 consecutive seasons and scored 105 goals in 150 appearances for Italy, Morace later became a television commentator and coached the women’s national teams of Italy, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2018 she applied for the England women’s job and voiced her frustration after the Football Association picked Phil Neville.
“I am so frustrated,” Morace said. “I don’t understand why the FA are saying that no woman who was good enough wanted the job.”
Author
Leave a comment