Women’s Super League champions Chelsea have appointed Lyon boss Sonia Bompastor as their new manager on a four-year contract.
Compensation has been agreed with the French club for the 43-year-old, who had one year remaining on her contract.
Bompastor succeeds Emma Hayes, who left at the end of the season to take charge of the United States women’s national team.
The former France captain, who took over Lyon in 2021, led them to Women’s Champions League success in 2022 and has won three consecutive league titles.
Her final game in charge was this season’s Champions League final in Bilbao, which Barcelona won 2-0.
Lyon’s assistant coaches Camille Abily and Theo Rivrin will join Bompastor at Chelsea.
“I am incredibly grateful to join Chelsea as the head coach of the women’s team,” Bompastor said. “It is an institution in English football. I will give my all to this new project to meet the ambitions of the club, the staff and the players.
“I hope to live up to Emma’s legacy and continue the work that has been done in recent years. Let the adventure begin.”
After retiring from an illustrious playing career in 2013, Bompastor became the director of Lyon’s women’s academy, a role she held for eight years before taking the helm at Europe’s most dominant women’s team.
The former defender, who also won the Champions League twice with Lyon as a player, led the club to their eighth European crown in her first season in charge with a 3-1 victory over Barcelona in the final.
In doing so, Bompastor made history as the first person to win the competition both as a player and a coach, and as the first female manager to win the competition since Martina Voss-Tecklenburg in 2009.
Under her guidance, Lyon lost only once in the Division 1 Feminine campaign, finishing 11 points ahead of their closest rivals, before defeating Reims and Paris St-Germain in the play-offs to secure their 17th league title.
Chelsea’s general manager Paul Green said: “Sonia’s vision, coaching philosophy and winning mentality made her the outstanding candidate.
“She is a world-class coach with a proven track record of success on the biggest stages that will instantly command respect from the dressing room.”