Bev Priestman is best known for leading the Canadian women’s national team to gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics — the youngest coach at the tournament — just one year after taking over the women’s program. She shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes and winning strategies from the team’s incredible 2020 gold-medal win as well as lessons learned from a disappointing 2023 Women’s World Cup, including how she keeps her team motivated through challenge.
Hailing from the small English town of Consett, Priestman grew up with a soccer ball at her feet. Playing on the streets and in the schoolyard, she embraced the hardworking mentality of her blue-collar hometown, leveraging this mindset throughout her incredible coaching career, which has brought her to three continents over the span of 15 years.
Priestman got her start as a Support Coach with the Everton Football Club before heading up the development of the New Zealand women’s national football team for five years. She then joined Soccer Canada, quickly moving up the ranks to become an Assistant Coach under her own childhood futsal coach, John Herdman, who also hails from Consett. In this position, she helped Canada finish sixth at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015, second at the 2016 Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, and earn a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In 2020, Priestman became the Head Coach of the Canadian women’s national soccer team following Herdman’s departure. Prior to this, she spent a pressure-packed two-year stint as Assistant Head Coach with the English women’s national football team, where she helped guide the team to a fourth-place finish at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
