From amateurs to SWPL champions - how Olid transformed Hearts

Hearts arrived at the 2021-22 period after finishing bottom of the SWPL, avoiding relegation only because the league expanded to 10 teams. Eva Olid joined the club in 2021 and led a rapid rise, including back-to-back fourth-place finishes as Hearts became semi-professional for 2022-23. In the past five years, Hearts secured their first league title, which brings maiden European football. Olid announced she would leave at the end of the season, creating a major gap for the club. Her appointment was viewed as standout and top-level, despite limited public information about her earlier career. She credited intense dedication and constant effort to the team’s success.

"When an unknown Eva Olid arrived in Edinburgh back in 2021, Hearts had just finished bottom of the SWPL, only avoiding relegation because of the league's expansion to 10 teams. To say she has transformed the club in the past five years is a colossal understatement. Back-to-back fourth-place finishes as the club became semi-professional for the 2022-23 season were pointers towards things to come. But the triumph they secured on Sunday - a first league title, which brings with it a maiden run out in European football - would have been beyond anyone in maroon's wildest dreams."

"Just over six weeks ago - days after Hearts moved to the top of the table by beating Glasgow City for the first time - the Spaniard announced she would be leaving at the end of this season. The hole she leaves at Hearts is humongous, but what a leaving present she has delivered. When she was unveiled as the replacement for Andy Kirk - who became boss at Highland League side Brechin City - then-sporting director Joe Savage said Olid's application "instantly stood out"."

"Information about her past was, and still is, scarce - her Wikipedia page has nothing pre-Hearts - but her work in her homeland and in the United States with Houston Dynamo impressed the powers that be in Gorgie. Savage said it was "an exciting appointment" and the club were getting "a top operator". Both statements have stood the test of her tenure. "I've dedicated my life to this club for five years," the league-winning manager - who took Hearts to their first and still only Scottish Cup final two years ago - told BBC Scotland."

""No personal life, no social life, no days off, no holidays, just fighting for this team. "And sometimes I had moments where I thought, 'Is this worth it? Living my life for them.' "But now I think this is a clear example that it was worth it, living my life for this team. We've had our reward." As recently as the season split, just nine weeks ago,"

Read at www.bbc.com