Australia women’s assistant coach Melissa Andreatta has been appointed Scotland head coach on a four-year deal.
The 46-year-old is the permanent successor to Pedro Martinez Losa – who left his role in December after failing to reach Euro 2025 – subject to the completion of visa arrangements.
Michael McArdle oversaw the first four games of Scotland’s Nations League Group A1 campaign this year, finishing off with Tuesday night’s 6-1 thrashing in Germany.
Andreatta has been assistant coach of the Matildas since 2019 and has also led the Under-23s since their inception in 2022.
Before joining the national team set-up she guided home club Brisbane Roar to the W-League Premiership title – which is now known as the A-League – in 2018 and was voted coach of the year in the country’s top division.
Andreatta is set to take charge of Scotland for the first time on 30 May when they host Austria in their penultimate game in Group A1.
Scotland, who are yet to pick up a point in the group, finish their campaign by travelling to the Netherlands four days later.
McArdle will return his full attention to his role as the Scottish FA’s head of women’s elite football.
Ex-midfielder Andreatta qualified as a teacher before becoming head coach of her former club The Gap, whom she guided to back-to-back State League Championships in 2007 and 2008.
She initially joined Brisbane Roar as an assistant before her successful spell as head coach, while also working with Football Australia’s technical department.
A near 10-year association with the Matildas began in a technical analyst role in the count down to the Rio 2016 Olympics.
She was promoted to a full-time assistant with Australia after fulfilling various other roles and was part of the team that finished fourth at the home World Cup in 2023 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
For the last two-and-a-half-years she has also led the Australia Under-23s, with one of her priorities being to nurture young talent.
What is in Andreatta’s in-tray?
There is a lot for Scotland’s new manager to tackle.
There is no doubt the side is in a transitional period, with McArdle opting to use his short time in charge as a chance to introduce youngsters to a group who have largely underperformed when compared to their status in the game.
Often described as a golden generation of talent, the players who fell to their knees at Bolt Arena in Helsinki in December had just failed to reach a third major tournament.
For a nation who had made back-to-back finals before that, it has been a challenging few years.
Andreatta is noted for giving youthful players a chance, as well as being adept at working with a group brimming with talent. The Matildas crop she leaves behind have carried a similar heavy weight of expectation to the Scots.
Her immediate task will be picking the players up from their second-half collapse against Germany in Wolfsburg on Tuesday night.
An already bruised side took a battering and they now only have two games left to try to salvage their top-tier status in the Nations League.
They may need to take one step backwards again to get to the level they want to – and fleetingly have threatened to – but given the slips backwards they have made in recent years, it’s perhaps a necessary move to get back on the tournament track.
