When Liene Vāciete first stepped onto a football pitch at the age of 16, girls’ football was still far from mainstream in Latvia. Today, she leads the country’s women’s national team and is helping shape a future in which women’s presence in football is no longer questioned.
Growing up, Liene was surrounded by boys who played football. Together with other girls who wanted to join the game, she encouraged a local club to create opportunities for female players. Looking back, she sees how strongly societal expectations influenced what young girls believed was possible.
“People believed football wasn’t meant for girls or women. At that time, it simply wasn’t common,” Liene recalls. While much has changed since then, she believes women in leadership and coaching positions still face challenges that many men do not. “We often feel that we are not allowed to make mistakes. We need to be perfect to be taken seriously.”
Challenges help to grow
Throughout her career, Liene has often found herself as the only woman in coaching courses or leadership environments. Those experiences taught her an important lesson: success would require persistence, resilience, and the willingness to work harder than others.
She admits that one of the hardest lessons was realising that as a woman in sport, opportunities are rarely handed to you based on potential alone. “I have to prove myself first with work and only then get a chance. I have to give more effort and work harder to reach the same position where a man might arrive more easily.”
Yet rather than becoming discouraged, she chose to see challenges as opportunities for growth. “I have to take risks. The best outcome is success, and the other outcome is gaining knowledge and experience.” That mindset has become one of the foundations of her leadership philosophy.
The mentor who changed everything
When Liene looks back at the biggest turning point in her professional journey, one person immediately comes to mind: Swedish football manager and former football player Anna Signeul.
Through a UEFA women’s coaching mentorship programme, they spent nearly two years working together. What Liene gained was not only knowledge, but something even more powerful – confidence.
“Every time I try to track back where the biggest change in my career happened, I stop at that time,” she says. Having someone with similar experiences consistently tell her she was ready for bigger opportunities helped silence years of self-doubt.
“She kept telling me: ‘You’re ready. You’re good enough. You need to go. You need to try.’ Eventually, you start believing it.”
The experience also reinforced what Liene now sees as one of the most important messages for women in leadership: confidence often grows when someone believes in you before you fully believe in yourself.
Inspired by women supporting women
That is one reason why she joined the Her Turn project. Liene is constantly looking for opportunities to learn and improve. But just as importantly, she values the chance to be surrounded by ambitious women leaders. “Usually, being around strong female leaders inspires me.”
For her, the most powerful part of these environments is the ability to relate to one another’s experiences, share challenges openly, and learn from women who have already overcome similar obstacles. “Hearing how other women have gone through difficult situations and overcome them gives you a clear picture that it’s possible.”
For Liene, leadership is about much more than results on the pitch. It is also about creating visibility, representation, and possibility for the next generation.
Looking ahead
Although stereotypes around women in football have not disappeared, Liene sees clear signs of progress. “The times have got better,” she says. “And that gives me courage that leadership and coaching roles will eventually follow the same path.”
Her hope is simple: that more people recognise the strengths women bring to leadership and trust them with greater responsibility. And if she could speak to the 16-year-old girl who was just beginning her football journey?
The message would be clear: “Don’t focus so much on the things that didn’t work. Focus on the future and the possibilities ahead. Believe in yourself. Because if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.”