Norway Comes Calling For Colin (Colin Bell interview)

Colin Bell, the first English coach to win the UEFA Women’s Champions League, leaves 1. FFC Frankfurt after Mandy Islacker’s injury-time winner against Paris Saint-Germain delivered a record fourth continental title, and heads to Norway’s Avaldsnes. The Leicester native moved to Germany as a young player and, 33 years on, calls working in another country a long-held dream. Frankfurt, he says, was a dream come true. Nominated for FIFA World Coach of the Year alongside Mark Sampson, Jill Ellis, John Herdman and Laura Harvey, he says 26 years of ups and downs make the recognition mean more. On men’s clubs taking on women’s teams he is measured: it can be very good if taken seriously and not treated as a fad, provided unaffiliated clubs do not go bust.