Pressure now on FAI to build on Vera Pauw's impact

It wasn't quite a case of 'Vera who’? when the Republic of Ireland manager took charge of the team back in September 2019 but she was far from the household name she now is around the country.

Handed the reins after Colin Bell was unable to lead the team to the 2019 World Cup, Pauw is by some distance the most successful manager that the women’s national team has had but now leaves on a disappointing note, with just a draw to show for their efforts in Australia.

As a player Pauw, represented her native Netherlands 89 times over a 14-year career but the Dutch were unable to qualify for a major tournament during that time.

A trailblazer at club level, she became the first female Dutch player to ply her trade professionally when she signed for Serie A club Modena in 1988, spending two seasons in Italy before returning to play in the Netherlands.

Pauw combined the final few years of her playing career with her coaching badges and was fully qualified as a manager when she and her husband, Dutch coach Bert van Lingen, moved to Scotland to work with Rangers.

Pauw was appointed coach and technical director of the Scottish women’s team at the same time and spent six years there before eventually leaving to take up a similar role with the Netherlands where she enjoyed success, leading the Dutch to the semi-finals of the 2009 World Cup.

However, she parted company with the Netherlands six months later, claiming that she and the KNVB had ‘grown apart’ and later cited a sense of indifference to the women’s team and their achievements as the driving force for her exit.

Spells in charge of the Russian and South African national teams followed before Pauw returned to club soccer, joining the Houston Dash in the US National Women's Soccer