Chelsea women have identified Lyon head coach Sonia Bompastor as their prime candidate to replace the departing Emma Hayes at the end of the season, according to reports.

The Blues are currently searching for Hayes’ replacement after the Englishwoman announced she was leaving the club in the summer to become the new USWNT coach.

Bompastor was earmarked as a potential successor early in the process given her achievements as both a player and manager and negotiations are now ongoing, as reported by The Athletic.

The French-born manager previously won the Women’s Champions League as a player before going on to achieve the same feat as Lyon coach two-years ago.

Chelsea women have identified Lyon head coach Sonia Bompastor as their prime candidate to replace the departing Emma Hayes

Hayes is leaving Chelsea at the end of the season to become USWNT head coach

She was promoted to her current role from within Lyon having previously worked in the club’s academy prior to Jean-Luc Vasseur being sacked in 2021.

Her first season was rewarded with Lyon winning an outstanding double consisting of the Division 1 Feminine and the Women’s Champions League where the club beat Barcelona in the final.

Bompastor’s attack-minded philosophy has resulted in Lyon becoming one of the women game’s most-feared teams after previously winning the league with an unbeaten record during her first full season in charge.

Hayes and Bompastor are manager’s cut from the same cloth after previously working alongside each other in America during their formative coaching years over a decade ago.

The current Chelsea boss was on the coaching team at Washington Freedom in the Women’s Professional Soccer championship, while Bompastor has just joined the newly-formed American team’s squad.

Bompastor has won the Women’s Champions League as both a player and a manager

Blues boss Hayes has previously worked with Bompastor when the pair were in America

Hayes has been incredibly impressed with the 43-year-old since they first met, previously stating before a quarter-final Champions League clash with Lyon: ‘What a brilliant player, honestly. An unbelievable left-back with an unbelievable wand of a left boot. 

‘I managed to coach her in a team that had Homare Sawa and Abby Wambach. She was just a cultured, brilliant footballer that’s very quiet, cheeky, funny – the media might not always see that about her.

‘But it’s of no surprise to me that her and Camille have done well working together and I said to her at the end of the game last week: “round one, I’ll see you back at Stamford Bridge next week”.

‘This will be a tough match and we both have a lot of respect for each other and it’s one that I’m looking forward to even more,’ she said at the time.