With the signing of De Pauw on a three-year contract with an option for a fourth, Villa Women will have a new manager in place come WSL season. The 42-year-old manager takes over for Carla Ward, who announced her resignation last month following three fruitful years in command and guiding the Villans to a seventh-place result in the previous campaign.
De Pauw has an impressive background in management, especially from his time at Bayer Leverkusen. He showed that he could improve team performance throughout his two-year tenure by leading the squad to two top-six league finishes. He was the manager of Twente before moving to Germany, and he had a big impact there by guiding the team to a league and cup double in 2022. His extensive knowledge of football development at all levels is further demonstrated by his experience as a young coach with the Dutch FA.
De Pauw has expressed his admiration for the work done by Ward and her team, acknowledging the solid groundwork laid during her tenure.
“You have to give credit to the organisation, the former manager and her staff, and everything looks good,” De Pauw said. “The players are a very big part of it. They’ve grown as a team over the past few seasons and shown that they are a stable factor in the league. I’d like to win something, like every coach. We’ll be doing fine if we end up in the top six, but we have to be ambitious, we have to dream. In the future if we can build towards European football that would be a dream for everyone in the organisation.”
The integration of De Pauw’s vision and strategy is the main focus as Villa Women get ready for the upcoming season. The club is eager to start a new chapter and has great expectations for future achievements and success.
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