Lisa Cole

US Women’s AC and Scout | Former TechAdvisor - Zambia Women’s Football | Technical Director @CentreSoccer_PA & @MTNUnion | Coach Educator

[DW Sports @dw_sports]

FIFA has selected six women among the 170 officials for the 2026 World Cup.

Among them are Mexico's Katia Garcia, the first Mexican woman to referee a men's World Cup match and Tatiana Guzman, the first woman to referee a men's first division match for Nicaragua 👏⚽️

[U.S. Soccer YNT @USYNT]

Leah Klenke of the #U23WNT scored an IDENTICAL GOAL to @Antonee_Jedi in today’s 1-0 win over SC Corinthians in Sao Paulo 🤯🚀

And they’re both fullbacks 🇺🇸

[B/R Football @brfootball]

Having 'Triple Espresso' back on the pitch for USWNT vs. Brazil will be special 🙌☕️

[Right to Dream @right2dream]

The World Cup story starts long before kickoff.

And across our academies today, the next World Cup stories are already being written. ✍️🌍

#BeforeTheWorldWatched

[Harry Kane @HKane]

Congratulations to everyone at the club especially the fans - massive fight and result on the final day! 💪

[Lisa Cole @Lcole22]

@astakvitne ⚽️🇳🇴

[MO'MEN @GoatMo_]

🚨- الفيديو

[U.S. Soccer YNT @USYNT]

USA in Group E for the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco! 🏆

🇺🇸 USA
🇨🇳 China PR
🌍 CAF 4 (determined in July)
🇼🇸 Samoa

#U17WNT

[U.S. Soccer YNT @USYNT]

Our group at the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup is set! 🏆

🆚 🇮🇹 - Sept. 6
🆚 🇯🇵 - Sept. 9
🆚 🇳🇿 - Sept. 12

Next stop: Poland ⏩

[Techne Futbol @technefutbol]

Common Goal CEO Mary Connor shares the story that inspired her lifelong mission to use soccer as a force for opportunity, inclusion, and impact around the world.

Now, through World Football Giving Day, your training can help create that impact too. ⚽🌍

[Men in Blazers @MenInBlazers]

THINGS YOU LOVE TO SEE ❤️

Marie-Louise Eta became the first woman to win a match as the manager of a men’s team in Europe’s top five leagues when Union Berlin beat Mainz 3-1 in the Bundesliga, thanks to some late heroics 😮

[Aspen Institute Sports & Society @AspenInstSports]

NEW REPORT: The @AspenInstitute has analyzed the youth soccer ecosystem in NYC and North Jersey. Hear from local youth, gain insights from data and check out recommendations to get more kids playing the beautiful game.

Read report⚽: https://t.co/JeF9ry8tOO

[U.S. Women's National Soccer Team @USWNT]

Our quest for 2027 @FIFAWWC qualification begins November 27 at the @ConcacafW championship 👀

🔗 https://t.co/72Rx7ViCWC

[The Sporting Resource @TheS_Resource]

Per Mertesacker stands in front of the parents of every under-eight at Arsenal and tells them the same thing.

"Your son has got less than 1% to be the next Saka. We've got to make sure that we develop well-rounded individuals who still can find a bus station and are not waiting for the taxis when we leave them. 99% need to find a different job, period. We cannot just prepare them to fail. No chance, I am not in it for this."

That's not pessimism, that's the most honest thing anyone in elite youth football has said out loud in years.

1️⃣ Mertesacker spent nearly eight years as Arsenal's academy manager, overseeing one of the most productive periods in Hale End's history Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Max Dowman and the foundation of all of it wasn't a scouting methodology or a training model.

It was a decision to tell the truth to every parent, right from the very beginning. Less than one per cent will make it as a professional. The programme exists for the other 99% as well, and the two things are not in conflict. The bus station isn't a place, it's a metaphor for what independent, capable, grounded young people are able to do when the football eventually stops. Finding their own way, without needing someone to carry them there.

2️⃣ What he's describing is something grassroots football has always understood at some level but rarely said with this kind of clarity. Most of the children we work with will not become professional footballers. That isn't a failure of the coach, or the child, or the programme it is just the shape of the numbers, and it has always been the shape of the numbers.

The question worth sitting with is whether the experience we're giving them is one that sets them up well for a life that will mostly happen away from football, or one that only makes sense if the 1% outcome arrives.

3️⃣ The line that lands hardest is this: "We cannot just prepare them to fail." Preparing children to fail is exactly what happens when the entire environment is built around an outcome that almost none of them will reach. When self-worth gets tied to selection. When being released at sixteen feels like the end of something rather than a redirect.

When the adults around a young player have quietly, without meaning to, communicated that the football is the point and the person is secondary. Mertesacker spent eight years at one of the biggest clubs in the world arguing the opposite, and the players coming out of Hale End reflect it.

4️⃣ For those of us working at grassroots level, there's something both sobering and freeing about hearing this from someone at the very top of the game. If Arsenal's academy manager is standing in front of under-eight parents and reframing what success looks like, then the rest of us have permission and perhaps a responsibility, to do the same. Not to lower expectations, but to broaden what we're actually developing:

• Confidence that doesn't depend on being picked
• Resilience that outlasts a bad season
• The ability to work in a group, handle setbacks, and keep showing up
• An identity that exists outside of football

These things serve the 1% and the 99% equally, and they're built in exactly the same sessions, on exactly the same pitches.

5️⃣ Mertesacker has now stepped down from his role at Arsenal, and what he leaves behind isn't just a list of players who made the first team, it's a way of thinking about what a programme is actually for. That conversation doesn't stay at Hale End. It belongs everywhere a child is learning the game, including your Sunday morning pitch.

Do the clubs and programmes you're involved with talk honestly with parents about where this road leads and what it's building along the way?

We'd love to hear your experience below 👇

[Concacaf W @ConcacafW]

All eyes on what’s coming: 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗮𝗰𝗮𝗳 𝗪 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 🔥

[U.S. Women's National Soccer Team @USWNT]

Thank you, Seattle 💙

[The Women's Game @WomensGameMIB]

With 36,128 fans at Lumen Field, tonight’s USWNT game sets a new attendance record for a stand-alone women’s match in Seattle. Women’s sports are the moment 🏟️🙌

[Cesar Hernandez @cesarhfutbol]

Drones, hype videos and data: The number-crunchers and "support engine" behind the USMNT's World Cup prep

"If we've done our job well, we'll be the most prepared team going into this"

https://t.co/Sd2Vvbs19V

[Oceania Football Confederation @OFCfootball]

The OFC Pro League has touched down in Fiji for Round 5! 🇫🇯

Get to know more about Fiji's football history and the venues ahead of kick-off this weekend.

📖 Read the article here: https://t.co/9OgCIheL0D

📺Watch the action LIVE and FREE on FIFA+

#OFCProLeague

[Tom Farrey @TomFarrey]

I spent 20 years as a reporter watching the youth sports landscape shift. Today, we've created a $40B/year industry. My @TEDTalks is live now, exploring how we can build a new scoreboard for success and put the youth back in youth sports. Watch: https://t.co/CN8WXfhyUZ

[The Winning Difference @thewinningdiff1]

“Young people, you need to bet on yourself.
If you think you're that good, you don't need a handout. You just allow your work to speak for itself."

Do not ask to be chosen.
Work until you cannot be ignored.