As is the case with so many players, coaches, and staffers in the NWSL, Portland Thorns head coach Rhian Wilkinson has an unfortunate amount of experience navigating an unhealthy club environment.
Speaking to reporters at Audi Field ahead of the NWSL’s championship final between her side and the Kansas City Current, Wilkinson said that while the NWSL’s myriad problems — most notably spelled out by the Yates investigation on abuse and misconduct in the league — must continue to be addressed, the same issues are prevalent all over the world.
“I’m Canadian, and I was working in England, and this is everywhere,” said Wilkinson. “It’s a horrible thing to say. This is not only about soccer, it’s not about the NWSL. It’s not just about women, it’s everywhere. And it’s a problem everywhere.”
Wilkinson’s 14-year playing career took her to clubs in the United States, Canada, and Norway, and she amassed 180 caps for the Canadian national team. Before taking over in Portland, she was an assistant coach with England’s national team, as well as the head coach of Canada’s Under-17 and Under-20 teams.
‘An opportunity’ for NWSL
Wilkinson urged everyone in NWSL to see the situation as a chance to get things right and create a stronger, healthier league. That includes coaching the Thorns, who have seen owner Merritt Paulson step back from involvement and club executives Gavin Wilkinson and Mike Golub fired for their failure to report the reasons former head coach Paul Riley was dismissed by the club.
“I say that all the time: It is an opportunity to come (to Portland) to coach, I believe, one of the best club teams in the world, and to try and be world leaders in this. And I mean it. It’s an opportunity, we have to see it as that,” added the first-year Thorns head coach in a call for NWSL to take the current momentum behind needed changes and carry it on to make the league a standard-bearer in terms of safe practices. “How do we focus on positives, and then push and demand more transparency, make sure that we get better and better as a league? Because I need to continue to state this: I’ve played in a lot of different countries, I’ve lived in a lot of different countries, it’s everywhere.”
Wilkinson emphasized that for her, the pressure the league is under to make things right is something to be grateful for, rather than something to chafe at or to avoid. For her, the issue is one where NWSL can become a world leader, rather than stop at just correcting known problems.
“People that are finger-pointing at the NWSL, I’m glad that they’re holding us to standard, and we’re going to take that mantle,” said Wilkinson. “We’re going to lead the way, be best in practice. But it is not unique to the NWSL, and it did not scare me away from joining this league.”
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