Lydia Bedford, one of the few women to coach in a Premier League system, has joined the Calgary Wild, Canada's first professional women's soccer league.
CALGARY — The chance to return to women's soccer and on the ground floor of a new venture pried Lydia Bedford away from a Premier League club. One of the few women to hold a coaching position within a Premier League team's system was introduced as head coach of the Calgary Wild on Friday. The six-team Northern Super League scheduled to start its inaugural season in April will be Canada 's first women's pro soccer league.
Bedford is the men's under-18 coach for Brentford FC in London until she and that club navigate her contractual exit to the Wild. The 37-year-old from Guildford, England, previously managed Leicester City's women's team and was an assistant manager of Arsenal's women. Bedford found the Wild job more tempting than trying to climb the men's coaching ladder with Brentford. 'I want to be a coach that progresses in the women's game, and I want to be renowned for what I achieve in the teams that I work with,' Bedford said Friday at snow-covered McMahon Stadium, where the Wild will play its home games. 'This provides me with a great platform to come in and start with a team at the beginning of its journey where it's a level playing field, and my ability as a coach is what I get judged by, versus working in a league where the disparity might be massive between different teams and what you operate with.' When Brentford recruited her for its men's under-18 side in 2023, Bedford felt she couldn't turn down an opportunity few women get offered, even though her heart was in the women's game. 'Although I've really enjoyed the opportunity to be at Brentford, and it's a fantastic club with great people, there's always been a yearning to come back to the women's game,' she said 'I've never had a long term aspiration to work at the top end of men's football. 'Maybe there could have been a chance to progress, but it wouldn't have been what really excites me to get out of bed in the morning. That's working in women's footbal
WOMEN's SOCCER CALGARY WILD LYDIA BEDFORD PROFESSIONAL SOCCER CANADA
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