Melbourne Victory can confirm that Santi Escudero will depart his role as\u00a0NPLW Head Coach\u00a0to take up a role internationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Spaniard, who was appointed in November 2025, will\u00a0depart\u00a0for an exciting coaching opportunity\u00a0overseas\u00a0following the Club\u2019s Round 13 fixture\u00a0against Preston Lions this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A-League Women\u2019s Head Coach, Jeff Hopkins, will assume control of the team, being supported by NPLW Assistant Coach, Harley Hamdani.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melbourne Victory Director of Football, John Didulica, commented:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to thank Santi for his contribution during\u00a0the establishment of\u00a0our NPLW program\u00a0and\u00a0for helping the team make a strong start to\u00a0our\u00a0inaugural NPLW\u00a0season. Everyone at the Club\u00a0wishes Santi\u00a0well for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur structure, guided by the management of Emma Checker\u00a0and overseen by Jeff Hopkins,\u00a0will ensure\u00a0uninterrupted progress\u00a0within\u00a0the NPLW\u00a0competition and in the development of all our players.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melbourne Victory NPLW Manager, Emma Checker, added:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited for Jeff, a four-time A-Leagues Championship-winning coach, to be leading the team and building on the foundations laid by Santi.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be educated by one of the Women\u2019s game\u2019s leading coaching figures\u00a0presents a hugely exciting and unique opportunity for the girls, whose ultimate ambition is to represent Victory\u2019s A-League Women\u2019s team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Escudero said:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to thank the Melbourne Victory family for the trust, support, and opportunity to be part of this\u00a0Club. It has been a\u00a0very\u00a0enriching experience both professionally and personally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision has not been easy, as from day one, I have felt strongly connected to the\u00a0Club\u2019s values and proud to represent this\u00a0Club.\u00a0I\u2019m excited about the new challenge ahead, but my full focus remains on the NPLW program and continuing to work hard with the team to achieve another victory this weekend.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne Victory can confirm that Santi Escudero will depart his role as\u00a0NPLW Head Coach\u00a0to take up a role…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[329,330,260,332,5652,10290],"class_list":{"0":"post-9483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-melbourne","8":"tag-academy","9":"tag-academy-news","10":"tag-melbourne","11":"tag-melbourne-victory","12":"tag-nplw","13":"tag-santi-escudero"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}