‘Amazing coach’ Emma Hayes allowing USWNT to dream of Olympic glory as Arsenal star Emily Fox sets gold medal target for Paris Games

Hayes is currently a WSL rival of Fox, as she looks to deliver another domestic title triumph at Chelsea, but will be moving into international coaching at the end of the 2023-24 campaign. The reins will be inherited of a star-studded United States squad, but one that suffered a humbling last-16 exit at the last Women’s World Cup and has gone 12 years without claiming a goal medal at the Olympic Games.

Fox believes Hayes is the right choice to guide the USWNT forward, telling FIFA’s official website: “I’m just really excited about it, she’s an amazing coach. We got to meet her in November, [when she was] coming in and introducing herself and telling us a bit more about herself on a personal level, and then as a whole in terms of what she’s about. I’m really excited to hopefully get the opportunity to be coached by her and go from there.”

Hayes’ first matches at the helm will be friendly outings in June and July, before a quest for Olympic immortality is opened on French soil. Fox added on bringing America’s longest drought on the gold medal front to a close: “With any and every competition we play in, we want to win. With the Olympics, nothing is new there in terms of our standards and us wanting to win it. What’s really exciting this year is we’re going to have a new coach, and then there’s a lot of talented players that are new, that are younger, and I just think it’ll be really exciting. With the Olympics, it’s a really hard competition with how many games you play and such short breaks in between. But it’s a really exciting year for us and I think we’re all gearing up for it. The Gold Cup is coming up, which will be good practice and a great competition for us leading up to the Olympics.”

The USWNT are set to open their Gold Cup campaign against the Dominican Republic on Tuesday. They will also face Argentina and Mexico in the group stage of that competition, while a SheBelieves Cup semi-final date with Japan is pencilled in for April 6.