Meet the experts: Kirsty Yallop

Yallop’s club career saw her play for teams in Australia, USA, Sweden and Norway, and she has also completed a Master’s degree in Sport Science. The former international now has a particular interest in how female footballers are trained. She is a strong advocate for training females as females and conducting further research to increase knowledge in this area. She made her transition from playing to coaching in Norway where she was a “Top Player Developer” as part of a development programme that included working one-to-one with young players in a technical and mentoring capacity. 

Women’s competition

“With 12 top-level teams in the women’s section, it’s going to be very competitive from the first whistle. I’m excited to see Spain and see how they back up being crowned World Cup champions last year. Germany and USA did not have their greatest World Cup experiences so it will be good to see if they are still in building mode or challenging mode. The groups are very tough, but I feel Colombia could get out of their group because they have so many talented players and were brilliant to watch in the World Cup.

“I’m also interesting to see how Australia fare without their key player in Sam Kerr, but they are in good form coming into this tournament. France, as host nation, will expect to challenge and Canada, the reigning champions, have lost Christine Sinclair to retirement. I see them as similar to Germany and USA and somewhat in transition,” she explained.

Men’s competition 

“I think Colombia could be a surprise team because there has been real development on the ground there, which is really showing in their performances at recent major tournaments.  In general, I feel this age group (U-23) is quite unpredictable, and the influence of the overage players brings an interesting dynamic. The squads are tight numbers wise (16 outfield and two goalkeepers) so all players need to be really fit.

“The performances at this level can really showcase and reflect the player development work that is ongoing in these countries,” she added.

Yallop will observe games in the men’s and women’s competitions from her base in Nantes, before moving to Paris for the gold medal matches.