by Matt Slater
THE Football Association of Wales have announced that Jayne Ludlow has left her role as Wales Women Head Coach after six successful years.
Ludlow’s contract started in October 2014 and she went onto become the first manager to take control of the side for more than 50 games.
Most notably, Cymru reached the top 30 in the FIFA World Rankings as her side marginally missed out on the Women’s World Cup in 2019.
The former Arsenal captain helped change the landscape of women’s football in Wales and developed the game into what it is today.
“It has been an honour and an absolute pleasure to have worked with the staff and players across the age groups and the senior team.” Ludlow said.
“It has been a fantastic learning environment for me personally, and I am proud of what we have achieved over the last six years as a group of staff and players, whom I want to thank.
“I am looking forward to the next challenges, one of which is an exciting opportunity I have to be part of a technical leadership team at FIFA.
“I wish the squad well in the future and I feel that qualification for a first major final is not far away.”
The departure leaves the former-boss free to pursue other managerial opportunities, having been linked to the West Ham vacancy a month ago.
Ludlow has hinted that her eyes could be set on another managerial job and has no intent of taking a step back.
“It is the end of an era, but I am excited for the future.” Ludlow continued.
“I am excited for the team I am leaving, and for me personally.
“Hopefully, there are opportunities to share that knowledge in the future, to keep growing and building that.
“I want to keep learning myself – that is key for me going forward. I love this game.”
Arsenal Ladies’ record goal scorer has identified Wales’ tie with England at Rodney Parade as the highlight of her tenure. The affair will live long in the minds of the Red Wall, as the side were pushing to clinch their first Women’s World Cup qualification.
“The obvious highlight with the seniors is the England game.” Ludlow said.
“We had fantastic support down there, to push us on to get a fantastic result against one of the best teams in the world.
Jonathan Ford, the FAW’s Chief Executive, added by thanking Jayne for her commitments to the nation, and that the search for a new boss will start shortly.
“It’s been six years – six great years.” Ford said.
“There has been a lot of things that we can look back on and say ‘Jayne, you really did us proud’.
“We will firstly pay our respects to Jayne and say, ‘thank you very much’, we will give ourselves a little bit of time to reflect, and then ultimately, we will need to move forward relatively quickly with a new search for our new head coach.”
