Who Is Sonia Bompastor? Insight into Chelsea’s Probable New Manager.
As Emma Hayes’ departure for the US Women’s National Team looms large, I consider the current frontrunner in the bid to fill her shoes.
Emma Hayes’ are big shoes to fill in English football.
I mean, who else could use videos of geese flying in formation and messages from Star Wars to unite and motivate their squad?
If reports are to be believed, it looks like it will be Lyon’s Sonia Bompastor stepping up to the plate in South London next season. So who is Bompastor, and what will she bring to the Blues?
“The Chelsea Way”, under Hayes, has always been about “big missions”. The main objective? Winning.
And win they certainly have; The Blues’ trophy cabinet is creaking under the weight of all that silverware. 15 domestic trophies since 2015, across League and Cup competitions, and with three empty spaces for this season that Hayes will undoubtedly be hoping to fill.
Bompastor, similarly, is no stranger to winning, as both a player and manager. After a successful playing career, since taking the helm at French Division 1 Féminine side Lyon in 2021 she has an 85% win percentage — outstripping Hayes’ own 71%, albeit over a considerably shorter timeframe. Her seven titles across three seasons at Lyon speak for themselves, and, currently 13 points clear at the top of Division 1, further silverware this season seems all but inevitable.
Crucially, Bompastor has been successful on a European stage, with victory in the Women’s Champions League in 2022. A proven record in that competition — the only one Hayes has yet to win with Chelsea — will be attractive to higher-ups within the club, in considering the Blues’ future. Should Chelsea progress in this year’s competition past a challenging semi-final against current holders Barcelona, a final against Bompastor’s Lyon (or semi-finalists PSG) could be on the cards.
A final face-off between Chelsea’s outgoing and incoming managers on a European stage? A tantalising prospect.
According to reports, first team Chelsea players were consulted on their preferences for a new manager, and were keen for another female coach to replace Hayes. After the work Hayes has done around female representation at a managerial level, the role of reproductive health and appropriate nutrition for female athletes, and the need for appropriate childcare provision for mothers in sport, the desire to keep this momentum going with a woman taking over as manager is hardly surprising.
However, as Hayes herself has highlighted, elite women’s football in England currently suffers a dearth of suitably-qualified female managers; Bompastor, who was Lyon’s first female head coach, is in many ways the obvious choice for a female coach with an appropriately stacked resumé.
Despite her record, there are concerns that Bompastor inhereted a majority of her star-studded squad at Lyon, and that, as such, their success has not been brought about entirely under her own steam. They have won the Champions League more times — eight — than any other club, with seven of these victories coming before Bompastor’s reign. Lyon has previously been seen as the Holy Grail of women’s football, and the club for which the best of the best aspire to play. While in recent years Barcelona have risen to domination, with the likes of Ballon d’Or winner Bonmati and Lioness Kiera Walsh, historically, Lyon are women’s football’s most decorated club side.
In recent years, women’s football is — rightfully — receiving more investment than ever, and other clubs are beginning to close the gap on the juggernauts of years-gone-by. It’s easy to see this increased competition, and Lyon’s failure to maintain their silverware monopoly, as stagnation from Bompastor’s side, rather than improvement in the sporting landscape as a whole. Whether this is a fair assessment is to be debated, but the manager will, regardless, quickly find herself under pressure to prove she can replicate Lyon’s success in a new context and an unfamiliar league.
Whilst Bompastor has faced criticism from the French media for failing to imprint her own identity on her Lyon side after more than 100 games in charge, for Chelsea a smooth transition of power may be key, rather than installing a manager keen to rip the operation up by its roots. The stability provided by staff like General Manager Paul Green, who has worked alongside Hayes throughout her tenure at the club, will be crucial to the handover process over the coming weeks and months, as Chelsea adjust to a new era without their most successful manager.
Chelsea, arguably, aren’t looking for a brand new “identity”; rather, a manager who can continue to build on the rock-solid foundations laid over recent years, and grow the club in an increasingly competitive landscape. Bompastor, however, will be reticent to live in the shadow of her predecessor’s legacy.
Chelsea’s players and fans alike have high expectations of success; they have set a high bar for themselves which they will hope to maintain, even as the rest of the WSL becomes more competitive around them. With Bompastor, they are getting a straight-talking, no-nonsense manager; a manager who doesn’t feel the need to put on airs for the media; a manager keen to focus more on tactics than niceties.
Time will tell whether success at Lyon will translate across the Channel in the WSL, but Bompastor has significant work to do to live up to the legacy Hayes leaves behind. She has become accustomed to winning, and her credentials speak for themselves, but a smooth handover will be essential. The last thing Chelsea will want is the sort of fumbled transition that lead to the deterioration of standards at Manchester United following Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure.
Does Sonia Bompastor have what it takes to take Chelsea to new heights? I don’t know — but I’m excited to find out.
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