Rhian Emilie Wilkinson (born May 12, 1982) is a Canadian professional soccer coach and former player. She was most recently the head coach of

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

of the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federati ...

(NWSL), where she led the team to the 2022 NWSL Championship. As a player, Wilkinson made over 180 appearances for the Canadian national team and won Olympic bronze medals in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and 2016. She played as a forward and a midfielder at the club level, but was primarily an attacking right fullback for the national team.

Early life

Wilkinson was born in

Pointe-Claire Pointe-Claire (, ) is a Quebec local municipality within the Urban agglomeration of Montreal on the Island of Montreal in Canada. It is entirely developed, and land use includes residential, light manufacturing, and retail. As of the 2021 c ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, to parents Keith Wilkinson and Shan Evans. Her Danish-born English father is a former director of the

Canada national rugby union team The Canada national rugby union team (french: Équipe du Canada de rugby à XV) represents Canada in men's international rugby union competitions and is governed by Rugby Canada. Canada is classified by World Rugby as a tier two rugby nation an ...

. Her mother, Shan Evans, was born in Wales. She has an older brother, David, and a twin sister named Sara. In 1990, she relocated to Wales for one year, where she attended Bont Faen Primary School in

Cowbridge Cowbridge ( cy, Y Bont-faen) is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff. The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council. A Cowbridge electoral ward exists fo ...

. The school did not offer soccer to girls and Wilkinson's mother joined the Parent-Teacher Association to convince the school to have inclusive sports teams. She attended Villa Maria High School in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

and was

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA) ...

of her class. She played soccer for the Quebec provincial team from 1997 to 1999 and was named most valuable player in 1999 after helping the club to the silver medal at the nationals. In 1997 and 1998, she helped the Lac St. Louis Lakers earn two silver medals at the national club championships. She was selected as the Greater Montreal Athletic Association's Most Valuable Soccer Player in 2000, and attended the national training centre camp for the under-19 Canadian national team in 2001. Wilkinson competed for the Lakeshore, a female

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

team, and also played rugby from 1998 to 1999. Wilkinson majored in

speech communication Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are ...

and English at the University of Tennessee and was chosen as the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

's Lady Vols' Offensive Most Valuable Player in 2002.

Club career

Wilkinson was named to the 2003 W-League All Star team and the 2004 W-League Championship All-Tournament team. She won the W-League 2005 scoring championship and tied for the assist leader with 38 points on 13 goals and 12 assists. She began playing for Team Strømmen of the

Toppserien The Toppserien is the top level of women's association football in Norway. It was founded in 1984. History Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in ...

(Norwegian league) in autumn 2005 and maintained her relationship with the club over the course of eight seasons. In 2013, she played for the

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women' ...

in the new

. She played several games for Boston as a midfielder, scoring twice. She signed with the

Laval Comets The Laval Comets (french: Comètes de Laval) was a Canadian women's soccer team established in 2006 in the city of Laval, Quebec, Canada, a northern suburb of Montreal. The team was a member of the W-League, the second tier of women’s soccer ...

of the W-League in 2014. In 2015, Wilkinson joined

of the National Women's Soccer League through

NWSL Player Allocation The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) federation players were players whose salaries for playing in the NWSL were paid for by their respective national federations from 2013 to 2021. American federation players were contracted to the United St ...

. In February 2016, the Thorns announced that Wilkinson would not play for the team in 2016, and she became unaffiliated. Rhian Wilkinson in 2011

International career

Wilkinson won bronze with Canada at the

2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a major Americas, continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of 5,633 athletes from 42 National Ol ...

, and gold at the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán, ...

where Canada defeated

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

4–3 in penalty kicks. She captured an Olympic bronze medal at

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

after Canada defeated

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

1–0 on August 9, 2012, in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...

, England. She contributed three assists in the first two games for Canada at the 2014 Cyprus Cup. Wilkinson announced her retirement from international football on January 13, 2017.

Coaching career

Wilkinson was a volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Collegi ...

. She also served as an assistant coach for the Canadian women's national team in 2019 and 2020, while leading their under-20 and under-17 programs. In February 2021, Wilkinson was appointed as assistant manager of the

England women's national football team The England women's national football team, also known as the Lionesses, have been governed by the Football Association (FA) since 1993, having been previously administered by the Women's Football Association (WFA). England played its first ...

with

Hege Riise Hege Riise (born 18 July 1969) is a Norwegian football coach and former midfield player who is coaching the Norway women's national football team. One of the best footballers of her generation, she won the FIFA Women's World Cup, the Olympic Gam ...

in charge. Riise and Wilkinson also coached the

Great Britain women's Olympic football team The Great Britain women's Olympic football team (also known as Team GB; or occasionally Great Britain and Northern Ireland) represents the United Kingdom in the women's football tournament at the Olympic Games. Normally, no team represents the ...

in 2021. In November 2021, Wilkinson was named head coach of

of the

(NWSL). She led the team to a second-place finish in the regular season, followed by winning the 2022 NWSL Championship 2–0 over the Kansas City Current. Despite the on-field success, the Thorns players asked for Wilkinson's resignation after an investigation into her relationship with a specific player, and Wilkinson left her role in December 2022.

Personal life

Wilkinson plays the cello for fun and played the trumpet in high school, and has been a member of the Suzuki Strings Orchestra since 1994. She participated in the 1997 Quebec Winter Games in

ringette Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on ice hockey rinks using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organiz ...

Honours

Playing

Canada * Summer Olympic Games: bronze medal:

, 2016 *

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is hel ...

: 2011 Individual *

Canada Soccer Hall of Fame The Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honours people and institutions for their contributions to Canadian soccer. It was founded in 1997 by the Ontario Soccer Association and was originally located in Vaughan, Ontario. As of 2019, the Canada Soccer Ha ...

: 2022 * "Maurice" Award: 2008 * Canada Soccer Fans' Choice Award: 2007 *Senior Excellence Women Player: 2007 *

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC) Freshman of the Year: 2000

Coaching

Portland Thorns FC *

NWSL Championship The National Women's Soccer League Playoffs (or NWSL Playoffs) are a single elimination tournament among six teams in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States, deciding the winner of the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games cann ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

References

External links

* * * /

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Rhian 1982 births Living people Canada women's international soccer players Women's association football forwards Women's association football defenders Soccer people from Quebec Canadian people of English descent Canadian people of Welsh descent People from Pointe-Claire Tennessee Volunteers women's soccer players Canadian expatriate soccer players Anglophone Quebec people Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Expatriate women's footballers in Norway FIFA Century Club 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2007 Pan American Games Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2011 Pan American Games Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics National Women's Soccer League players Boston Breakers players Olympic soccer players of Canada Olympic medalists in football Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Pan American Games bronze medalists for Canada Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Canadian twins Twin sportspeople Portland Thorns FC players Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Canadian women's soccer players Pan American Games medalists in football University of Tennessee alumni Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2007 Pan American Games Canadian women's soccer coaches Portland Thorns FC coaches National Women's Soccer League coaches Female association football managers Lakers du Lac Saint-Louis players Ottawa Fury (women) players USL W-League (1995–2015) players Laval Comets players