Brentford’s Lydia Bedford set to become Calgary Wild head coach

Lydia Bedford is set to leave her role with Brentford Under-18s to become the new head coach of Calgary Wild.

Bedford, 37, will be officially unveiled at the club’s McMahon Stadium on Friday. She will combine duties for both clubs during January before leaving Brentford, with her departure date yet to be agreed.

The former Leicester City Women’s manager has worked in Brentford’s youth setup since May 2023, with her appointment at the time considered a major step for women’s coaching in the men’s game. She was one of only a handful of female coaches to hold a role in the men’s setup at an English club.

Calgary Wild are one of six founding members of the newly-formed Northern Super League (NSL), Canada’s first professional women’s football division.

The move to the Calgary Wild marks Bedford’s first senior head coach role since her time at Leicester between 2021 and 2022, where she helped the club avoid relegation from the Women’s Super League in 2021-22 before being sacked the following season after starting the campaign with six straight defeats.

Bedford joined Brentford following a spell on Jonas Eidevall’s coaching staff at Arsenal Women. She has also previously worked as an England Women’s youth team coach and spent the summer with the under-19s squad at the Women’s European Championship.

Calgary Wild will join Halifax Tides, Montreal Roses, AFC Toronto, Ottawa Rapid and Vancouver Rise for the NSL’s inaugural season, which begins in April.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Brentford, Canada, UK Women's Football

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