Anna Signeul (born 20 May 1961) is a Swedish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player. She was the national coach of the Scotland women's team from March 2005 until 2017, and the national coach of the Finland women's team from 2017 to 2022.

Playing career

Signeul grew up in the town of

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabita ...

, Sweden and enjoyed participating in many sports as a child. As a supporter of

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the ...

, she drifted towards football and joined local club Falu BS. While still a teenager, she joined

IK Brage Idrottsklubben Brage, also known as IK Brage or simply Brage, is a Swedish football club located in Borlänge. The club is affiliated with Dalarnas Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Domnarvsvallen. The club colours, reflected in their ...

before spending the majority of her playing career at Strömsbro IF. In total, Signeul made 240 appearances in the

Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...

, the highest tier of Swedish women's football. Although called up to several

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

national squads, she was never capped for her country as a player.

Coaching career

Signeul began her coaching career at the age of 21 while still a player at IK Brage. She coached at club level including spells at Strömsbro IF and

Tyresö FF Tyresö Fotbollsförening is a Swedish football club in Tyresö, a municipality in Stockholm County. The club was founded in 1971 and is primarily known for its main women's team, which competed in the top-tier league Damallsvenskan in the 2010� ...

, and from 1996 worked with the

Swedish Football Association The Swedish Football Association ( sv, Svenska Fotbollförbundet, SvFF) is the governing and body of football in Sweden. It organises the football leagues – Allsvenskan for men and Damallsvenskan for women – and the men's and women's nati ...

as head of the national women's teams at youth level. Under Signeul's tutelage, Sweden came third in the 1998 UEFA Women's Under-18 Championship before winning the competition the following year. In March 2005, Signeul was appointed as National Coach of the Scotland women's team, replacing the outgoing

Vera Pauw Vera Pauw (; born 18 January 1963) is a Dutch Women's association football, football coach and former player. She currently manages the Republic of Ireland women's national football team. She has managed several national women's football teams, i ...

. Her first major achievement was leading the country to a qualification play-off for

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 The 2009 UEFA Women's Championship, or just Women's Euro 2009, was played in Finland between 23 August and 10 September 2009. The host was appointed on 11 July 2006, in a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Berlin and the Finnish proposal won over ...

which they lost on

away goals The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. She has also led Scotland to an all-time high of 20 in the

FIFA Women's World Rankings The FIFA Women's World Rankings for football were introduced in 2003, with the first rankings published on 16 July of that year, as a follow-on to the existing Men's FIFA World Rankings. They attempt to compare the strength of international ...

. In addition to her position as National Coach, Signeul also has a wider remit in charge of developing the women's game at all levels in Scotland. Signeul announced in January 2017 that she would leave Scotland after the

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national team ...

tournament to become the head coach of

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. After the end of the

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEF ...

tournament, concluded by Finland at the group stage and defeated in all the three matches, Signeul resigned in agreement with Finnish football federation.

References

1961 births Living people People from Falun Sportspeople from Dalarna County Swedish women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Scotland women's national football team managers Finland women's national football team managers Swedish women's football managers Female sports coaches Female association football managers UEFA Women's Euro 2022 managers Swedish expatriate football managers {{Sweden-women-footy-bio-stub