Canadian Rhian Wilkinson steps down as Thorns head coach after investigation
PORTLAND, Ore. — Canadian Rhian Wilkinson has stepped down as head coach of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Portland Thorns, saying gamers requested her to resign following an investigation into misconduct.
Wilkinson mentioned in an announcement Friday that she was cleared of wrongdoing following an investigation right into a relationship with certainly one of her gamers.
She mentioned gamers discovered in regards to the investigation earlier than she might inform them and requested her to step down, which she agreed to do.
Wilkinson mentioned she shaped a friendship with a participant that “turned into more complex emotions.”
She mentioned the connection didn’t progress previous an “expression of feelings for one another” and shortly after she and the participant stopped speaking exterior of labor.
Wilkinson mentioned she reported herself to the Thorns’ human sources division.
The news of Wilkinson’s departure comes a day after Thorns proprietor Merritt Paulson mentioned he’s placing the group up on the market. That determination got here practically two months after a pair of group executives have been dismissed for his or her roles in systemic abuse and misconduct that had spanned a number of groups within the NWSL, together with the Thorns.
Wilkinson was employed as Thorns coach in Nov. 2021 and led the Thorns to an NWSL title final season.
The group’s captain, Christine Sinclair, and common supervisor, Karina LeBlanc, are additionally Canadian.
The 40-year-old Wilkinson, from Baie d’Urfe, Que., received 181 caps for Canada’s girls’s group and helped it win a bronze medal on the 2012 London Olympics.
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