Sonia Bompastor

Sonia Bompastor

Bompastor in 2012
Personal information
Full name	Sonia Bompastor[1]
Date of birth	(1980-06-08) 8 June 1980 (age 44)
Place of birth	Blois, France
Height	1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Chelsea (manager)
Youth career
1988–1994	US Mer
1994–1997	US Thoury
1997–2000	Tours EC
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2000–2002	La Roche-sur-Yon
2002–2006	Montpellier	83	(36)
2006–2009	Lyon	54	(15)
2009–2010	Washington Freedom	41	(6)
2009–2010	→ Paris Saint-Germain (loan)	13	(10)
2010–2013	Lyon	59	(4)
International career‡
1997–1998	France U18	3	(0)
2000–2013	France	156	(19)
Managerial career
2013–2021	Lyon Academy
2021–2024	Lyon
2024–	Chelsea
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 18 September 2016 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18 September 2016 (UTC)

Sonia Bompastor (born 8 June 1980) is a French football manager and former player who currently manages Chelsea of the English Women's Super League.^[2] She is the first person to win the UEFA Women's Champions League as both a player and a manager.^[3]

Bompastor was a midfielder, preferably on the left side; she also played left back. Bompastor was a two-time winner of the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) Female Player of the Year, and following a move to the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league in the United States, earned Player of the Month and All-Star honors.

Bompastor began her football career joining US Mer in 1988. In 1992, she joined US Thoury. In the same year, Bompastor earned selection to nationally recognized Clairefontaine academy joining alongside a select group of female players. After her stint at Clairefontaine, she joined Tours EC, now the women's section of professional club Tours FC. In 2000, she joined Division 1 Féminine club ESOF Vendée La Roche-sur-Yon and performed well enough to earn a move to Montpellier. At Montpellier, Bompastor earned domestic and individual honors, which resulted in a move to champions Lyon. In 2008, she joined the new United States-based women's soccer league, Women's Professional Soccer, after her American playing rights were chosen by Washington Freedom in the 2008 WPS International Draft.^[4] After helping the Freedom reached the playoffs, Bompastor returned to France where she played for Paris Saint-Germain on loan. In 2010, she announced that she would be returned to Lyon for the 2010–11 season and, subsequently, was a part of the team that won the 2010–11 UEFA Women's Champions League.

Bompastor is also a French international. Prior to playing for the senior team, she played at youth level representing the under-18 team at the 1998 UEFA Women's Under-18 Championship. Bompastor made her senior international debut in February 2000 in a friendly match against Scotland. From 2004 to 2006, she served as the national team's captain. Bompastor has played in numerous tournaments for her nation beginning with UEFA Women's Euro 2001.

In June 2013, Bompastor chose to end her career after the French Women's Cup final.^[5] She became the academy director of Olympique Lyonnais Féminin after retirement.^[6] In April 2021, she took over as manager of Lyon's first team.^[7][8]

Bompastor was born in Blois and began playing football at an early age. Of Portuguese origin, both of her parents are from Póvoa de Varzim and most of her family still lives in the area. Bompastor told Ma Chaîne Sport that she always goes to Póvoa when she has the opportunity to do so.^[9] She was drawn to football through her father, who was a referee.^[10] He took her to many of the games he refereed on the weekends and Bompastor quickly developed an attraction towards the game.^[10]

Bompastor began her football career in 1988 at US Mer, a local club in a neighboring commune, playing with the club's mixed team. In 1992, she joined US Thoury. That same year, Bompastor earned selection to an exclusive female team that was given clearance to train at the Clairefontaine academy by the French Football Federation.^[10] The academy had quickly become a high-level training facility for male football players and supporters of women's football wanted younger women to be afforded the same benefits from the facilities as young men. Following vocational training at Clairefontaine, Bompastor moved to amateur team Tours EC. She spent four years at the club before joining ESOF Vendée La Roche-sur-Yon of the Division 1 Féminine in 2000.

Bompastor's professional career began with ESOF Vendée La Roche-sur-Yon in 2000. She scored seven goals over her two years with the club before moving to Montpellier HSC in 2002.

At Montpellier, Bompastor blossomed and scored 38 goals over four seasons while helping the club win league titles in 2004 and 2005, as well as the Challenge de France (women's version of the Coupe de France).

Lyon was the next destination for Bompastor, for whom she joined in the summer of 2006. She became an important part of the squads that won back-to-back league titles in 2007 and 2008, and of the squad that won the Challenge de France in 2008. This gave her six titles in a span of four years, equal to teammates Camille Abily and Élodie Thomis who were also a part of the same Montpellier squad Bompastor previously had played for.

On 24 September 2008, Bompastor was selected to join the new United States-based women's soccer league, Women's Professional Soccer, after her American playing rights were chosen by Washington Freedom in the 2008 WPS International Draft.^[4] Her Lyon teammate Louisa Necib was also chosen by the Freedom. In the 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season, Bompastor appeared in 19 games (all starts, 1709 total minutes) and scored four goals with six assists. Following the conclusion of the season, she was loaned to D1 Féminine side Paris Saint-Germain.

Bompastor made her international debut for the Bleues on 26 February 2000 in a match against Scotland. She was a member of the squads that participated in the 2001, 2005, and 2009 editions of the UEFA Women's Championship. She also represented France at the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

On 27 September 2008, Bompastor picked up her 100th cap in a crucial UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying match against Iceland,^[11] which France won 2–1.

After retiring from playing in 2013, Bompastor managed Lyon's academy for eight years.

In 2021, Bompastor was appointed manager of Lyon's first team. She subsequently led them to 7 trophies won overall including 3 consecutive Division 1 titles in the 2021–22, 2022–23 and 2023–24 seasons and the UWCL in 2021–22 with a 1-3 win over Barcelona in the final.^[12]

On 29 May 2024, Bompastor was appointed manager of Chelsea, on a four-year deal.^[2] She managed her first match with Chelsea on 20 September 2024 in a 1-0 win over Aston Villa.^[13] On 12 October 2024, she led Chelsea to the club's first ever away win at the Emirates Stadium and the club's first away win to Arsenal since 2020 when they won the match 1-2.^[14]

On 16 November 2024, Bompastor's Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-0 to go to the top of the WSL table after winning all of her first 7 league matches in charge of the team (10 wins out of 10 matches in all competitions currently too). ^[15] It made Bompastor have the best start ever for any new manager in the league’s 14 years history so far.^[16]

Statistics accurate as of 18 September 2016^[17][18]

Club	Season	League		Cup		Continental		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
La Roche-sur-Yon	2000–01	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2001–02	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	Total	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Montpellier	2002–03	22	12	2	1	0	0	24	13
	2003–04	22	7	3	1	0	0	25	8
	2004–05	18	5	0	0	9	2	27	7
	2005–06	21	12	0	0	5	1	26	13
	Total	83	36	5	2	14	3	102	41
Lyon	2006–07	20	9	0	0	0	0	20	9
	2007–08	21	5	5	3	9	2	35	10
	2008–09	13	1	0	0	5	1	18	2
	Total	54	15	5	3	14	3	73	21
Washington Freedom	2009	19	4	–	–	–	–	19	4
	2010	22	2	–	–	–	–	22	2
	Total	41	6	–	–	–	–	41	6
Paris SG	2009–10	13	10	0	0	0	0	13	10
	Total	13	10	0	0	0	0	13	10
Lyon	2010–11	19	2	3	0	6	1	28	3
	2011–12	22	2	4	0	8	2	34	4
	2012–13	18	0	5	0	9	2	32	2
	Total	59	4	12	0	51	5	94	9
Career total		250	71	22	5	37	11	309	87

(Correct as of 18 September 2016)^[17][19]

National team	Season	Apps	Goals
France	1999–2000	3	0
	2000–01	14	0
	2001–02	10	0
	2002–03	13	1
	2003–04	15	5
	2004–05	10	0
	2005–06	13	2
	2006–07	13	1
	2007–08	8	1
	2008–09	5	1
	2009–10	12	4
	2010–11	17	2
	2011–12	23	2
Total		156	19

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	23 August 2002	Stade Félix-Bollaert, Lens, France	Denmark	2–0	2–0	2003 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
2	21 February 2004	Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier, France	Scotland	1–1	6–3	Friendly
3	21 February 2004	Stade de La Mosson, Montpellier, France	Scotland	5–3	6–3	Friendly
4	14 March 2004	Estádio da Nora, Ferreiras, Portugal	United States	5–1	5–1	2004 Algarve Cup
5	16 March 2004	Estádio Municipal, Quarteira, Portugal	Sweden	0–3	0–3	2004 Algarve Cup
6	21 February 2004	Stade Auguste Delaune, Reims, France	Hungary	2–0	6–0	2005 UEFA Women's Championship qualification
7	21 February 2004	Stade Fernand Sastre, Sens, France	Republic of Ireland	3–0	6–0	Friendly
8	22 April 2006	Stadion Eszperantó Út, Dunaújváros, Hungary	Hungary	0–2	0–5	2007 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
9	22 November 2006	Stade de la Libération, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France	Belgium	4–0	6–0	Friendly
10	23 April 2008	Yiannis Pathiakakis Stadium, Akratitos, Greece	Greece	0–3	0–5	UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying
11	25 April 2009	Colmar Stadium, Colmar, France	Switzerland	1–0	1–0	Friendly
12	24 August 2009	Ratina Stadion, Tampere, Finland	Iceland	1–2	1–3	UEFA Women's Euro 2009
13	25 February 2010	Richman Park, Dublin, Ireland	Republic of Ireland	0–1	1–2	Friendly
14	27 March 2010	Stade de la Libération, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France	Northern Ireland	2–0	6–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
15	31 March 2010	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	0–1	0–4	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
16	15 September 2010	Stadio Pietro Barbetti, Gubbio, Italy	Italy	1–3	2–3	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
17	13 July 2011	Borussia-Park, Mönchengladbach, Germany	United States	1–1	1–3	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
18	26 October 2011	Stade de l'Aube, Troyes, France	Israel	2–0	5–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying
19	28 February 2012	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Switzerland	3–0	3–0	2012 Cyprus Cup

As of matches played 24 November 2024

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	From	To	Record								Ref
			G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Lyon (women)	27 April 2021[7]	25 May 2024	118	100	10	8	381	71	+310	084.75	[20][21]
Chelsea (women)	29 May 2024[2]	present	12	12	0	0	37	7	+30	100.00
Total			130	112	10	8	418	78	+340	086.15

Montpellier

• Division 1 Féminine: 2003–04, 2004–05^{[citation needed]}
• Coupe de France Féminine: 2005–06^{[citation needed]}

Lyon

• Division 1 Féminine: 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13^{[citation needed]}
• Coupe de France Féminine: 2007–08, 2011–12, 2012–13^{[citation needed]}
• UEFA Women's Champions League: 2010–11, 2011–12^{[citation needed]}

France

• Cyprus Cup: 2012^{[citation needed]}

Individual

• UNFP Female Player of the Year: 2003–04, 2007–08^{[citation needed]}
• WPS Player of the Month: May 2009^{[citation needed]}
• WPS All-Star: 2009, 2010^{[citation needed]}
• FIFA Women's World Cup All-Star Team: 2011^{[citation needed]}

Lyon

• Division 1 Féminine: 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24
• Coupe de France féminine: 2022-23
• Trophée des Championnes: 2022, 2023
• UEFA Women's Champions League: 2021–22

Individual

• WSL Manager of the Month: September 2024^[22]

Orders

• Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite: 2014^[1]

• Sonia Bompastor – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Sonia Bompastor at the French Football Federation (in French)
• Sonia Bompastor at the French Football Federation (archived 2020-02-21) (in French)
• FFF player profile (in French)
• Paris Saint-Germain player profile
• Washington Freedom player profile at the Wayback Machine (archived 2009-11-15)