The Danish coaching guru credited with developing some of Europe’s top talent, Fortuna Hjorring manager Brian Sorensen, has emerged as the leading candidate to be the new manager of Women’s Super League side Everton, Telegraph Sport understands.

According to multiple sources, the 41-year-old, who has worked with Denmark stars including Chelsea’s Pernille Harder, could take over at Everton following the end of the Danish league season, after impressing the club’s board at interview.

Sorensen, who grew up on a farm before working in the construction industry while obtaining his coaching badges and progressed to the top of the Danish women’s game, would first complete the Danish league campaign – which ends in June – with his current club, Fortuna Hjorring, with whom he has won three league titles.

In the meantime, interim head coach Chris Roberts would remain in caretaker charge of Everton for the rest of the WSL campaign, having stepped up to lead the team following the sacking of former head coach Jean-Luc Vasseur on February 2.

Everton’s recruitment process to find former Champions League winner Vasseur’s replacement has taken more than two months but the club’s broad-ranging search is now close to an end with discussions with Sorensen said to be at an advanced stage.

He has won six major domestic trophies in Denmark, as well as reaching the 2016-17 Women’s Champions League quarter-finals with Fortuna Hjørring, where they were beaten 2-0 on aggregate by Manchester City in a closely-fought tie where a goal in each leg from Carli Lloyd and Lucy Bronze knocked Sorensen’s underdogs out.

From a construction manager to the top of the Danish game: Who is Brian Sorensen?

Sorensen is in his second spell in charge of Fortuna Hjorring, after stepping back in 2018 to take a sabbatical to work on developing the digital training aid he invented, a technology-based training system called Goal Station which has been used across clubs on three different continents including PSG and Juventus’ academy.

That software, together with his accumulation of silverware in Denmark, has boosted the coaching reputation of Sorensen, who initially worked for 15 years as a construction manager while coaching part-time, before obtaining his Uefa Pro Licence qualification in 2015.

Described by sources as a training-ground ‘guru’ with modern ideas, Sorensen has worked with some of the biggest names in European women’s football during his career, coaching Chelsea’s Denmark star Harder when she was a youngster at his former club, Aarhus-based outfit Skovbakken. Her transfer from Wolfsburg to Chelsea later in her career, for a fee in excess of £250,000, remains the women’s game’s world-record transfer fee.

He has also coached Manchester United’s Denmark forward Signe Bruun, and has built a strong reputation in Scandinavia for helping to develop young talent, also including West Ham’s young Denmark midfielder Emma Snerle.

The task ahead at Everton would not be an easy one, with the club having had high expectations for this season after reaching the 2020 Women’s FA Cup final, but instead currently finding themselves 10th in the 12-team top flight. The women’s football community was surprised when the Merseyside outfit sacked former manager Willie Kirk after just five games of the current season, and his successor, former Lyon coach Vasseur, lasted just 10 games in charge.