England boss Sarina Wiegman's huge personal sacrifice for family in UK
England is at full strength ahead of their Italy showdown this evening as the Lionesses aim to reach another European Championship final. Captain Leah Williamson will be fit for tonight's game and Jess Carter is "ready to perform" after the defender revealed she had been the target of racist abuse.
But one of England 's key figures won't be on the pitch - she'll be watching from the sidelines. Manager Sarina Wiegman is credited as the driving force behind the national women's team success over recent years.
During her five-year reign, Sarina has led the Lionesses to victory at UEFA Women's Euro 2022 and reached the FIFA Women's World Cup Final in 2023. But her many professional victories haven't come without personal sacrifice.
Sarina took the reins as the England Women's football manager in 2020, amidst the global lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially contemplating a commute from her residence in The Hague, Netherlands, she soon recognised the necessity to move to the UK for her position.
She relocated alongside her spouse, Marten Glotzbach, also a German football coach, and their offspring, Sacha and Lauren, embracing English culture wholeheartedly.
As per The Guardian, Sarina expressed: "Although the countries are really close together there are some differences in culture, so I really tried to learn. I took some English classes in football.
"I said [to the FA that] I will learn about your culture and try and adapt to your culture, but the directness you have to know... I will not go around it or change that. The other things, I will try to adapt to. I think it went really well and we've really enjoyed ourselves, I think we can still grow a lot."
During the 2022 Euros, she even confessed to adopting the British habit of adding milk to her tea and sampling the national favourite, fish and chips, as part of her integration efforts.
While Sarina generally maintains privacy regarding her family life, she did offer a rare peek into her personal moments in December 2020. A charming festive photograph showed Sarina, Marten, and their daughters cosily gathered around the Christmas tree, with their cherished dog also making an appearance in the heartwarming image!
England, fifth in the world, are eight places higher in FIFA's global rankings than tonight's semi-final opponents, and are unbeaten in all five of their recent meetings with Italy – all friendlies – with four wins, including last year's 5-1 victory.
But though statistics may be on the defending champions' side, Sarina said: "I think it would be really disrespectful to Italy to think that we're the favourites.
"Complacency is just the biggest mistake you could make. We've seen how they've played. I don't think there's anything that we could think that we might be the favourite, but we have to be at our very, very best to win the game."
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