THE United States women’s team (USWNT) returned to the top of the Fifa women’s world rankings on Friday thanks to their gold medal triumph at the Paris Olympics last Saturday.

Their 1-0 victory against Brazil led to the surprisingly rare occurrence of British success in an Olympic football tournament, but even though the USWNT now have an English head coach, this is very much still a victory for US women’s football.

Emma Hayes stepped into the USWNT job in May after leaving Chelsea. She spoke in her numerous interviews following this whirlwind of a few months, culminating in Olympic gold, about her links to US football.