Sarina Weigman has scored her third back to back victory in the Euros, and her second managing England, but she’s had some heartbreaking difficulties during her path to success
England manager Sarina Wiegman has led the Lionesses to victory in the Euros 2025, making the Lionesses back-to-back European champions.
For the last three Women’s Euros, Sarina has been at the helm of the winning team, but the legendary football manager has suffered some heartbreaking setbacks in her personal life, whilst going from strength to strength professionally.
Sarina took over managing the England Women’s team in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and after initially considering commuting for the top job from her home country of the Netherlands, she realised she would have to move, bringing her whole family to the UK.
A personal tragedy struck only a couple of years into Sarina’s time in Britain. Her sister, Diana, had been diagnosed with cancer in 2021 – and over the following year got increasingly ill. She was heartbreakingly never able to travel to England to see Sarina in action.
In May 2022, the family was given the tragic news that Diana did not have much time left, and Sarina told the Guardian that despite the heartbreaking update, “We made that such a valuable month.”
Diana died just over a month before the Women’s Euros 2022 began, and Sarina revealed that she had support from throughout the Football Association to get her through such a tough time, explaining that during the tournament she felt incredibly connected to her late sister, who she knew would have wanted her to give the Euros everything she could.
However, the night before the final against Germany, the massive loss she had suffered suddenly hit Sarina hard and she broke down.
“We were preparing and all of a sudden it hit me: ‘OK, this is not what I want.’ That’s completely normal, it’s had such an impact and is so emotional,” Sarina said.
However, she turned to the support system around her to make sure that she got through the unbelievably difficult moment.
“During that whole period, I knew I could talk to anyone, but especially Kate Hays, our sports psychologist. I would just sit down with her and talk about it and, when you talk about it, it’s kind of a relief. So we did that the day before the final and actually when we played the final I was really happy in the moment and I didn’t have to cry, so that was settled.”
When the Lionesses won the match, Sarina was seen kissing the bracelet she wore and walking onto the pitch to celebrate with her players – the bracelet had once belonged to her sister, and the manager wore it as a tribute to Diana, keeping her close throughout.