Renee Slegers: The player, the coach and the person behind the Arsenal boss

The end of her playing career marked the start of a bright future in coaching.

However, it wasn’t always an obvious calling for Slegers who studied communication sciences while still playing the sport.

“In my opinion, she was way too intelligent to do something in coaching,” Stentler said. “I would say she would go work at a company where she would manage a lot of people and just have a big career in something like that.”

But when word got round that Slegers was working through her Uefa coaching licence, people started to take note.

“From that point on in Holland, some of the women’s football experts were saying ‘OK we should wait until Renee Slegers gets her Uefa pro [licence]. Then she would be the best next Sarina Wiegman,” Stentler added.

“Whenever a coach was sacked or just quit, then always, everyone would say Renee Slegers would be the ideal next coach. Everyone believes a lot in her.”

After ending her playing career at Linkoping, Slegers stayed in Sweden for the start of her coaching journey – taking charge of Limhamn Bunkeflo and Sweden’s Under-23s before moving to Rosengard to coach their B team.

When Jonas Eidevall left Rosengard to manage Arsenal in 2021, she was promoted to head coach of the first team, who she led to to back-to-back league titles before Eidevall called about an individual player development role at Arsenal in 2023.

“I was playing with her son at the time, but we were on the walk when Jonas called and asked her whether she was interested in that position,” said Rosengard’s head of youth coaching, Jonathan Bartling, who remains good friends with Slegers, her partner – former Linkoping defender Maja Krantz – and their three-year-old son.

“I worked with Jonas myself for two years, and I know that he knows his football and is very, very driven. So I think it was a great opportunity, and especially seeing now where she’s at – it’s a nice projection she’s had there.”

Former Scotland defender Jen Beattie was playing at Arsenal while Slegers worked in the player development role and said she “always give you the time”.

“If you couldn’t get an answer from the head coach, you could always go to Renee and she would always give you the time to sit and chat about something,” Beattie said.