While the England Lionesses had their partners cheering them on in the Women's World Cup, their manager Sarina Wiegman was also being supported by her husband Marten Glotzbach.
The Dutch football coach, 53, tends to keep her relationship out of the spotlight, only sharing rare photos of the German economics professor, but she did make an exception when she was discussing her career success.
© InstagramSarina was married with her two children Sacha and Lauren when she had the opportunity to take a full-time role with ADO Den Haag in the Eredivisie Vrouwen, also known as The Women's Eredivisie, in 2007. The then-part-time coach and PE teacher was encouraged to pursue her passion by her loving husband, whom she praised during an interview with the PA news agency.
© Instagram"I never talk about my husband (Marten Glotzbach) that much but then it was about my family," she said. "I quit my job. We didn’t earn a lot of money by being a professional coach, but I really wanted to do the job. And he said, 'This is your passion. Go for your passion, and we’ll be alright with the two daughters.'
© Instagram"And that was for me the most important thing, that we as a family were OK, and I could do this job properly. I said I want to do it full time because I want to focus on football, and if I couldn’t do it full-time I wouldn’t have done it, because then I couldn’t bring the quality that was needed to develop the game."
© Tullio Puglia - UEFASince then, Sarina has become the first female coach for a Dutch professional football team and led the Lionesses to victory at the Women's Euro 2022, before getting second place in the Women's World Cup Final 2023.
Sarina's childhood adversity
© Getty ImagesThe heroic exploits of Sarina Wiegman and her Lionesses will inspire a generation of women to play the beautiful game. While parity with men is still some way off, girls today will certainly find it easier to make it onto the pitch than England's inspirational coach did. In a recent interview with talkSport, Sarina recalled how the footballing adversity she battled as a child in the Netherlands forced her to make an unconventional choice.
"When I started playing football as a six-year-old girl we weren't allowed to play, so I played illegally. At that time as a girl you were not allowed to play football. [In my school team] I was the only girl on that team...A lot of these guys went into professional football at the highest level so it was a pretty good team too. Every time when we would go back to school we would have drinks and chips and that was the fun playing football and having those things. There was nothing in me at that time that thought that I would be here right now having had a football career and a coaching career."
It's clear women's football in the UK couldn't have a more 'roarsome' figurehead...
While little is known about Sarina and Marten's marriage, it is likely they bonded over their shared love of sport.
Marten started his career as a youth trainer and coordinator at Host Broadcast Services (HBS), which films major sporting events. He also used to work alongside Sarina when she was with the Dutch Women’s team.
© InstagramThe mother-of-two has shared snippets of their family Christmas celebrations and holidays – the most recent of which came shortly after the Euros win. Cuddling up to her husband on the beach as the sunset in the background, Sarina wrote: "Family time! Different mode than two weeks ago."
