Renée Josina Anna Slegers (; born 5 February 1989) is a Dutch

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and former player, who is the head coach of

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Slegers played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, representing Willem II, as well as Swedish

Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leagues in the world, and was founded in 1988. The division consists of a league of 14 teams. From 2013, t ...

clubs

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

and Linköping FC. She won 55

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the

Netherlands women's national football team The Netherlands women's national football team () represents the Netherlands in international Women's association football, women's football, and is directed by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), which is a member of UEFA and FIFA. ...

and appeared at

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for List of women's national association football teams#UEFA, women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament ...

. After her retirement, Slegers began coaching in Sweden and spent two seasons as head coach of

FC Rosengård FC Rosengård (), known as Malmö FF Dam () until 2007 and later LdB FC Malmö until 2013, is a professional football club based in Malmö, Scania, Sweden. The team was established as Malmö FF Dam in 1970. It started out with playing 7 seasons ...

. She joined Arsenal in September 2023, serving as assistant coach under Jonas Eidevall, and became the interim coach in October 2024, following Eidevall's resignation. In January 2025, Slegers was named head coach of Arsenal, signing a contract until the end of the 2025–26 season. Five months after she was named head coach, Arsenal won the Women's Champions League.

Club career

Slegers started her youth career with local

Someren Someren () is a municipality and town in the province of North Brabant in the Southern Netherlands. As of January 2019, the municipality had 19,322 inhabitants, with over half of the population residing in the town. Someren, just south of Helmond a ...

side SSE. She subsequently spent time on the books of

from 2006 to 2007, before returning to her home country to launch her senior career with Willem II. In 2011, Slegers left Willem II for Swedish club

. When Djurgårdens were relegated in 2012, she moved to Linköping FC for the following season. A serious knee injury sustained in November 2016 eventually brought about the end of Slegers' playing career and she was forced to announce her retirement in February 2018.

International career

On 5 March 2009, Slegers debuted for the senior

, against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in the

Cyprus Cup The Cyprus Women's Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's football. It has been held annually in Cyprus since 2008. Although the competition takes place in Cyprus, the hosts have yet to take part in the competitio ...

. She was not selected in the squad as the Netherlands reached the semi-final of

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 ...

. In June 2013, national team

Roger Reijners Roger Reijners (born 10 February 1964) is a Dutch football coach and former player. Playing career Reijners turned professional with Fortuna Sittard and played in the 1–0 KNVB Cup Final defeat to Feyenoord in his first season, 1983–84. He al ...

selected Slegers in the Netherlands squad for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. In March 2016, national team coach Arjan van der Laan selected Slegers for the Netherlands squad for the

2016 UEFA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament The 2016 UEFA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament was an international football competition organised by UEFA to determine the final women's national team from Europe to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics women's football tournament in Brazi ...

, in which she appeared for the Netherlands in the games against Norway and Sweden. Slegers was disappointed when a knee injury ruled her out of

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 Association football, football championship organised by UEFA for the ...

, which the Netherlands hosted and subsequently won. She had previously missed a year and a half of football due to a pelvic injury.

Managerial and coaching career

Slegers coached IF Limhamn Bunkeflo's under-19 team in the 2018 season and was promoted to the head coach role in November 2018. In March 2021, she was appointed head coach for Sweden's under-23 national team. She went on to manage

Rosengård Rosengård (literally "Rose Manor") was a city district () in the center of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with Husie, forming Öster. In 2012, Rosengård had a population of 23,563 of the municipality's 307,758. It ...

B, before succeeding Jonas Eidevall as head coach of the club's first team in June 2021. Slegers led the team to successive Damallsvenskan titles in 2021 and 2022. She left the post in April 2023.

Arsenal

In September 2023, Slegers joined

, where she became Eidevall's assistant coach. On 15 October 2024, following Eidevall's resignation as head coach, Slegers took over as interim head coach. Under Slegers, Arsenal went unbeaten in eleven matches, and qualified for the quarter-finals of the Women's Champions League, by finishing at the top of their group. On 17 January 2025, it was announced that Slegers had been appointed head coach, signing a one-and-a-half-year contract. On 24 May 2025, Slegers led Arsenal to their second UEFA Women's Champions League trophy, beating

FC Barcelona Femení Futbol Club Barcelona Femení, commonly referred to as Barça Femení () or simply Barça, is a Spanish professional women's association football, women's football team based in Barcelona, Catalonia. It is the women's football section of FC Barc ...

1-0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. In the 24/25 domestic season under Slegers, Arsenal reached the semi-finals of th
League Cup
and quarter-finals of th
FA Cup
Arsenal finished second in th
Women's Super League

Personal life

Slegers has a son with her partner, Maja Krantz, who played for Linkoping as a defender.

Career statistics

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list the Netherlands goal tally first.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

;Linköping FC *

(1):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Svenska Cupen Svenska cupen (, ), also known as the Swedish Cup in English, is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. ''Svenska cupen'' usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also ...

(2): 2013–14, 2014–15

Manager

;FC Rosengård *

(2):

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

* Swedish Cup (1): 2021-22 ;Arsenal WFC *

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

(1): 2024–25