Photos: Statue of Sarina Wiegman 'with necessary symbolism' unveiled on KNVB campus

sport">Edwin van der Sar, Ruud Krol, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Wim van Hanegen, Abe Lenstra, Faas Wilkes, Johan Neeskens, Piet Keizer, Johan Cruijff and Marco van Basten preceded Wiegman as players of the Team of the Century. Later Dennis Bergkamp also got a picture.

sport">“It was an incredibly honorable day. There are also so many beautiful words spoken. I am speechless,” concluded Wiegman, who secretly found it a bit uncomfortable to be in the spotlight for a day.

sport">The copper image of the success coach, who also played 99 international matches, contains the necessary symbolism. For example, artist Lia Krol has captured the 51-year-old from The Hague in a clapping pose. Wiegman has always emphasized that the 2017 European Championship title and the silver at the 2019 World Cup are not solely due to her. More than once she praised the efforts of her staff and players.

sport">Moreover, the image of Wiegman – at her emphatic request – makes a kind of step forward, ‘a walk’, as she herself said. As a symbol for the progress of women’s football. “I may be the face of the image, but it has to appeal much more to the imagination of the people.”

sport">Wiegman is working on her last months as national coach of the Lionesses. After the Olympics, she will start working for the English women’s football team. In Zeist she is succeeded by the Briton Mark Parsons.

sport">Wiegman hopes to finish with a gold medal at Orange. “We want to pop one more time, before a new era begins,” said the departing national coach in conversation with De Telegraaf, looking ahead to the Tokyo Olympics.

sport">“If we underperform in Japan, I will certainly have a bad feeling about it. Then it will take longer before I can look back positively, but what we have shown in 2017 and 2019, no one can take away from us,” she said.