World Cup-winning USA coach Jill Ellis pays tribute to Scottish mother

It was a comic moment between two family members that just so happened to be played out in front of the world’s sports media.

US head coach Jill Ellis has led her team to victory at the last two Women's World Cup finals. Picture: AFP

Jill Ellis, head coach of the USA women’s football team, was speaking to journalists following her side’s 2-0 victory over the Netherlands at Sunday’s Women’s World Cup final in Lyon.

With reporters hanging on her every word, Ellis’s smartphone started to ring. “It’s probably my mother FaceTiming me, so excuse me one second,” she told the room.

After declining the call, she joked: “It is mum. She’ll probably be pissed — she’s Scottish.”

Jill Ellis celebrates her team's 2-0 victory over the Netherlands

It was the kind of good-natured aside that has endeared Ellis not only to supporters of the all-conquering American women’s team, but to fans of the beautiful game around the world.

Team USA have now won the last two Women’s World Cup finals, with Ellis in charge on both occasions.

It’s an incredible achievement for the 52-year-old, who was born in Portsmouth to an English father and Scottish mother, at a time when British-born girls had little chance to play football at school or college.

“I was a Pompey lass,” she said an interview last week. “I can’t say I always supported Pompey – I’ve been a Man Utd fan since I was seven. But I have a lot of fond memories, (there were) a lot of great people and I spent a lot of summers up in Edinburgh.

“My whole British culture and growing up is still with me, for sure. I’m very grateful for that because I don’t think, had I grown up in another country, the passion for football would be where it is.”

While she first played football during informal games with her older brothers, it was her dad John’s decision to accept a job in the US that allowed her to take up the game seriously.

In 1981, the Ellis family moved to Northern Virginia, where John founded a local soccer academy. It was at her new high school that Jill began to enjoy the kind of organised football coaching that simply wasn’t on offer to girls of her age in the UK at that time.

In 1994, Ellis gave up a well-paid writing job with a telecommunications firm to take on an an assistant coaching job at the University of Maryland, which offered a fraction of her old salary.

It was a gamble, but one she was determined to take. Having gained a scholarship to the College of William and Mary thanks to her soccer skills in the late 1980s, Ellis already knew the sport could provide life-changing opportunities.

When she told her parents of her plan, her mother, Margaret, a former school dinner lady, “was horrified,” Ellis revealed in a 2015 interview.

But her dad John, who has also enjoyed a succesful coaching career in the States, was delighted and encouraged her to take the plunge.

“I could always sense that writing job wasn’t her style, and I told her that she should do what she really wants, and see where it takes her,” John Ellis told the Miami Herakd in 2015.

“She had what it takes to be a great coach — really good field vision, great people skills, and a way of getting people to do things they may not be confident doing.”

Following a second World Cup win, speculation is growing over Ellis’s next move. Her contract with U.S. soccer federation expires at the end of this month.

Ellis has the an option to sign on for another campaign but has yet to commit.

“I can’t even think about that right now,” she said at Sunday’s press conference. “Right now, it’s about just enjoying this moment. I said to the players in the pregame [meeting] that we have to take this game one minute, one moment, one decision at a time. And I kind of live by that.

“So I think for me right now, I’m just going to circle this in and enjoy it and celebrate with my players.”