Jill Ellis

Jillian Anne Ellis, an English-American football manager and executive, was born on September 6, 1966, in Folkestone, England. Her formative years were spent in Cowplain, where she engaged in various sports, but due to societal norms of the 1970s Britain, organised football for girls was not available. In 1981, her family relocated to the United States, where she began playing structured football. She captained the Robinson Secondary School team to a state championship in 1984 and won an under-19 national title with the Braddock Road Bluebelles the same year. Ellis continued her playing career as a forward at William & Mary from 1984 to 1987, scoring 32 goals and earning third-team All-American honors in her senior season. Following her playing career, she pursued a path in coaching, initially serving as an assistant at various collegiate institutions.

Ellis’s coaching journey included assistant roles at North Carolina State University (1988–1990), where she contributed to an Atlantic Coast Conference title and an NCAA appearance in 1988, followed by stints at Maryland (1994–1996) and Virginia (1996–1997). Her first head coaching position was with the Illinois women’s program from 1997 to 1998, leading them to their first Big Ten Tournament berth with a 12–8 record in 1998. She then moved to UCLA in 1999, where she achieved remarkable success over twelve years, guiding the Bruins to eight NCAA Women’s College Cups, including seven consecutive appearances from 2003 to 2009, and securing six straight Pacific-10 Conference titles from 2003 to 2008. In 2000, she was recognized as the NSCAA National Coach of the Year. Throughout her college coaching career, Ellis compiled a record of 248 wins, 63 losses, and 14 draws.

Her career progressed to the national level, where she coached the U.S. under-20 and under-21 women’s national teams, winning the Nordic Cup in 2000 and 2005, and the CONCACAF U-20 title in 2010. She also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team, contributing to an Olympic gold medal in Beijing 2008. Ellis was appointed Development Director for the U.S. women’s national teams in 2011, overseeing youth programs. In 2014, she became the permanent head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team, achieving two consecutive FIFA Women’s World Cup victories in 2015 and 2019, making her the first manager since Vittorio Pozzo to win back-to-back FIFA World Cup titles. She stepped down in 2019, transitioning to an ambassadorial role for the U.S. Soccer Federation, focusing on increasing the number of women in coaching. In June 2021, she became the president of the San Diego Wave FC, an expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). Later, in 2025, she joined FIFA as Chief Football Officer.