The English Football Association (FA) will consider Sarina Wiegman, the manager of the women's national team, as a potential successor to Gareth Southgate as the manager of the men's national team if Southgate leaves the position, FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said on Thursday.

Wiegman took over as the Three Lionesses' manager in August 2020 on a four-year contract with the FA. She guided the team to the UEFA European Women's Football Championship title in 2022 and has led them to the FIFA Women's World Cup final this year. England will play Spain to decide the world champion at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday.

"People always say it is the best man for the job or the best Englishman," Bullingham said. "Why does it have to be a man? I think our answer is always: 'it's the best person for the job.' We think Sarina is doing a great job and hope she continues doing it for a long time. I think Sarina could do anything she wants in football."

Southgate was first in charge of the English men's national team as a caretaker manager in September 2016 and then took the job on a permanent basis in November that year. He led the team to compete in three major international tournaments, finishing in fourth place at the FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018, as the runners-up in the UEFA European Championship in 2021, and reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

The FA confirmed that Southgate will continue to coach the Three Lions until after the UEFA European Championship in 2024.

"If at some point in the future she decides she wants to move into the men's game, that would be a really interesting discussion, but that's for her, right?" Bellingham said of Wiegman. "I don't think we should view it as a step up. If she decides at some point in the future to go in a different direction, I think she's perfectly capable of that."

Men's professional football has rarely witnessed women in coaching roles. Frenchwoman Corinne Diacre and Chan Yuen Ting from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are among the few women to have coached men's professional football teams in the past.

More recently, Forest Green Rovers in the EFL League Two had Hannah Dingley in charge, but only on a temporary basis. Bellingham saw this fact as proof that football is behind other sports on this front.

"Do I think football is behind other sports in terms of lack of female coaches at the top level? I do, and I think that has to change," the FA chief executive said. "And also, do I think Sarina could do any job in football? Yes I do."