Women's EURO 2025: France coach Laurent Bonadei on starting out against England

Having previously been assistant coach under Hervé Renard, Laurent Bonadei has been in command of France since 2024, leading them to UEFA Women's EURO 2025.

A lower league player in France, he gained a reputation as a specialist youth coach with the likes of Nice, Nancy and Paris, and also worked alongside Renard with the Angola and Saudi Arabia men's national teams before joining Renard at France.

On leading France into his first Women's EURO

I feel good. I'm honoured and proud to coach this team. I really enjoy coaching these players and managing this staff. They are really talented in every field – technical, medical and administrative. We’re working on our cohesion and mentality, so everything's good so far.

What is my France team like? A generous, committed team, with a good mindset, who want to put on a good show on the pitch.

On the opening game against England

It will be a very intense first match that will throw us right into the heart of this high-level competition before playing two other important matches. We have the last two EURO winners in our group [the Netherlands and England]. Good things always come in threes so hopefully there's a third winner in the group and hopefully it'll be us.

The Netherlands have a really interesting team. We [saw they were] neck and neck with Germany in the Nations League. Some of their talented players play in France. Then, Wales are not a team to be taken lightly. As for England, we know very well that they’re a team capable of playing with high intensity thanks to the quality of their league. But I think these teams also think that having France in the group won’t be easy.

On meeting England manager Sarina Wiegman

My first contact with her was during a match in Manchester in which Manchester United were playing Paris Saint-Germain. She was sitting next to me in the stand, so we had our first conversation.

She's a great professional, a great coach. After winning [the EURO] in 2017 with the Netherlands, she also reached the World Cup final in 2019 with them. She won the EURO in 2022 and reached the [World Cup] final in 2023 [with England] so that shows all her qualities as a manager and a coach and her abilities to bring her teams to the top level. I know her work, as I often see her on the pitch or in the stands when she watches her players. I have a very good relationship with her. She's always polite and nice. She’s a very respectable and respected person in our sport, because of her career but also because of the person she is.