After more than a decade of playing professional soccer, Angela Salem could count the number of female head coaches she’d had on one hand.
As the number of girls and women playing soccer has grown, the percentage of female coaches in the game hasn’t exploded with it — a 2019 FIFA study found that only 7 percent of registered coaches in the sport were women. At the professional level in the United States, players looking to make the leap from the field into coaching have faced barriers. For years, the necessary licenses could only be acquired through months-long, expensive courses that were difficult to compete during the season.