 Priestman in 2024 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Beverly Priestman[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1986-04-29)29 April 1986 (age 39) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Consett, England | ||||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||
| 2013–2016 | Canada U17 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2017–2018 | Canada U20 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2018–2020 | England (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2020–2024 | Canada | ||||||||||||||||
| 2025– | Wellington Phoenix | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Beverly Priestman (/ˈpɹiːstmən/PREEST-mən;[2] born 29 April 1986) is an English professionalfootball manager who is the current head coach of theWellington Phoenix women's team.
At age 12, Priestman signed-up forfutsal in Consett, underJohn Herdman, who was at the time a university lecturer and a part-time football coach. Priestman graduated fromLiverpool John Moores University and worked forEverton underMo Marley.[3][4]
Priestman has coached Canada'sU-17 andU-20 women's squads and was a technical assistant for theCanada women's national soccer team under head coach Herdman until 2016. She coachedEngland's women's U-17 squad, and she was assistant coach of theEngland women's national football team under head coachPhil Neville from 2018 to 2020.[4]
In October 2020, Priestman was appointed as the head coach ofCanada women's national soccer team, leading them to the gold medal at the delayed2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo on 6 August 2021.[5]
On 24 July 2024, she voluntarily withdrew from coaching the team for their opening match at the2024 Summer Olympics in Paris againstNew Zealand after two members of her backroom staff were sent home for allegedlyflying a drone over the opposition team's training session in the build-up to the game.[6][7] Two days later, Priestman was removed as Olympic head coach and suspended by Canada Soccer which said it had instigated an "independent external review" while world football governing body,FIFA, also announced it has opened disciplinary proceedings against her and the staff involved.[8][9] On 27 July, FIFA announced that Priestman would be suspended from football-related activities for one year due to "offensive behaviour and violation of the principles of fair play."[10][11] In November,Canada Soccer announced that an external investigation concluded that Priestman and assistant coach Jasmine Mander ordered analyst Joseph Lombardi to fly a drone during a New Zealand training session closed to the public. The three of them were subsequently fired.[12][13]
On 30 July 2025,Wellington Phoenix announced Priestman as head coach, with her signing a two-season contract.[14] In her introductory press conference with the Phoenix, she expressed excitement about returning to football following her year-long suspension, saying "It's been very difficult and I'm just excited to put my head down, work hard and get back to work and do what I love every day."[15]
Priestman is married toEmma Humphries, a former midfielder with theNew Zealand football team. Their son was born in 2018.[4]
| Team | From | To | Record | Ref | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % | ||||
| Canada Women | 28 October 2020 | 12 November 2024 | 56 | 30 | 15 | 11 | 87 | 39 | +48 | 053.57 | [16] |
Individual
Canada squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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