Football Federation Australia have named Hesterine de Reus as the new head coach of the Westfield Matildas.
Football Federation Australia have named Hesterine de Reus as the new head coach of the Westfield Matildas.
De Reus will leave her position as Manager and Head Coach of PSV/FC Eindhoven Women-s team in the Netherlands to take up the new role in the new year.
A qualified Physical Education teacher, de Reus played 43 times for the Netherlands Women-s National team from 1983-1993 before commencing a coaching career that has seen her work in elite women's club football, youth and technical development and with the Netherlands- national youth team programs.
FFA Chief Executive Officer, David Gallop, said de Reus was the stand-out candidate from the international search for a successor to Tom Sermanni, who has taken the job as Head Coach of the US Women-s National Team.
"We put in place a very thorough search process and we had extremely high calibre coaches apply from Australia and overseas," Gallop said.
"I'm delighted we've been able to appoint Hesterine de Reus as the new Head Coach of the Westfield Matildas.
“Hesterine has 18 years of coaching experience, all the relevant technical qualifications and an impressive track record working with national Women-s youth teams and elite Women-s professional clubs. She has the right mix of experience and skills for this important position.
“We look forward to working with Hesterine for the next stage of the Westfield Matildas campaign to defend the AFC Women-s Asian Cup and qualify for the 2015 FIFA Women-s World Cup,” Gallop concluded.
Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Director Matt Favier supported the sentiments of David Gallop.
“Hesterine is clearly a coach with significant experience and knowledge who has the ability to make a positive performance impact on the Matildas and the AIS football programs. We welcome her to the job and our role in supporting her efforts into the future.” said AIS director Matt Favier.
De Reus admits she is extremely excited about the challenge of working with the Westfield Matildas.
“I had the opportunity to watch some of the Westfield Matildas matches at the 2011 FIFA Women-s World Cup in Germany and I very much enjoyed their style of football,” de Reus said.
“We have some very ambitious plans for the team over the coming years and with the support of FFA and the AIS I am confident that we can perform on the international stage to the level that we aspire to."
A former Netherlands women-s national team player with 43 international matches to her name, de Reus began her coaching career in 1994 with the KNVB (Royal Dutch Football Federation) as part of their Youth Development Program working with U-12s through to U-18s.
De Reus began obtaining her coaching qualifications in 1995 and by 2001 was appointed an instructor with the KNVB and later was also a member of the KNVB-s “World Coaches” community program that conducted development visits to Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia.
Her first professional club coaching appointment was in April 1997 when de Reus became the Head Coach of Rijsoord in the Dutch National Women-s First Division.
The following season de Reus moved to the head coach position at Saestum Women where she stayed for five seasons, during which time she won three national championships (1999, 200 & 2002) and qualified for the 2002/03 UEFA Women-s Cup competition, which is now known as the UEFA Women-s Champions League.
De Reus also began her involvement with the Netherlands women-s national youth teams from 1999 as an assistant coach with the U-17 women-s national team and assistant coach of the U-19 Women-s National team in 2001.
In late 2002 de Reus became the head coach of the U-15 girls national team and in June 2004 was appointed as the head coach of the U-17 women-s National team. In 2007 De Reus became the head coach of the Netherlands U-19 women-s national team and took them to the semi-finals of the European Championship in 2010.
Following her time with the KNVB, in September 2010 de Reus became the Technical Director of the Jordan Football Association (JFA), which included holding the positions of head coach of the Jordanian women-s national team, U-19 women-s national team and U-16 girl-s national team. During her time with the JFA she helped the Jordanian women-s national team win the inaugural Arabia Cup in 2010.
De Reus had guided PSV/FC Eindhoven into third position after 13 rounds of the new BeNeLeague since joining the new club in June 2012.
In 2007 de Reus joined the UEFA Technical Study group, in 2008 became a FIFA instructor and in 2009 completed her UEFA Pro Licence. In September 2012, de Reus became a member of the project team of the Asian Football Confederation-s (AFC) Women-s Football Strategy Group.
Hesterine de Reus will begin her tenure as the Head Coach of the Westfield Matildas in January 2013.