“I had to take a boy’s name”: the improbable beginnings of Pia Sundhage, legendary footballer and Nati coach

“I had to take a boy’s name”: the improbable beginnings of Pia Sundhage, legendary footballer and Nati coach
“I had to take a boy’s name”: the improbable beginnings of Pia Sundhage, legendary footballer and Nati coach

Published on January 4, 2025 at 09:21. / Modified on January 4, 2025 at 09:31.

10 mins. reading

As a footballer, Pia Sundhage was European champion, third in a World Cup, sixth player of the 20th century according to a list established by FIFA in the year 2000. As a coach, she won two Olympic gold medals at the head of the United States and led two other of the best selections on the planet, that of his native Sweden and that of the country of soccerBrazil.

This is the kind of track record that we could easily be proud of. Not this sixty-year-old with a mischievous look, an easy joke and a quiet charisma who has been guiding the Nati on the path to its European Championship at home since January 2024. From July 2 to 27, the largest sporting event organized in Switzerland, at least since the men’s Euro shared with Austria in 2008, will constitute the high point of a year 2025 extremely rich in major sporting events in the country .

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