Sarina Wiegman confirms she has not extended England contract beyond 2025

Sarina Wiegman confirmed that she has not signed a new contract with the Football Association to extend her time with the Lionesses beyond 2025 but feels “very valued” by the governing body.

“No I haven’t signed a new contract,” said the 52-year-old manager, who led England to a first major trophy since 1966 in the summer. “I already have a contract until 2025 and we had good conversations. I am very happy with the contract I have. I feel very valued. We have, hopefully, a couple of more tournaments until that time. It’s very comfortable at the moment and we are all happy. I am happy, the team is happy, the FA is happy and I just hope we will keep it that way.”

The Lionesses play the Czech Republic at Brighton’s Amex stadium on Tuesday night after a 2-1 victory against the World Cup holders, the USA, at Wembley on Friday. After that match, USA head coach Vlatko Andonovski labelled England as serious contenders for next summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand but Wiegman was dismissive of whether that put additional pressure on her team.

“No, it’s not a lot of pressure, I would have expected him to say that,” said Wiegman. “I think a lot of our other competitors will say that. They did that a lot during the summer too, to put pressure on us. They were saying we had to win. Well, we really wanted to win and we had to play well. That’s what we had to do and that’s what we wanted to do every time. That’s what we can control. We try to get better all the time and then we’ll see what that brings us.”

England’s right-back Lucy Bronze said that the team’s run of 23 games unbeaten under Wiegman was down to their ability to focus on each opponent.

“It’s obviously fantastic that we’ve not been beaten under Sarina – magic