England manager Sarina Wiegman says she “had to pretend to be a boy” to play football as a child in the Netherlands.
Wiegman, 51, went on to win more than 100 caps for her country as a player before moving into coaching, leading the Netherlands to the women’s Euros title in 2017.
“When I started playing football as a six-year-old girl we weren’t allowed to play, so I played illegally,” she said.
The Lionesses beat North Macedonia 8-0 in Wiegman’s first match in charge.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, she added: “I had very short hair, looked a little bit maybe like a boy, my parents were really OK and I had a twin brother, so we just started to play and everyone said that’s OK.
“It wasn’t normal then and now it’s just normal, whether you’re a boy or a girl, you can play football and that’s just great. It was actually crazy before, that you couldn’t, but that’s just the way it is in development I guess.”