The first time Emma Hayes introduced herself to the US Women’s National Team (USWNT) she put a photo up on the big screen.
The photo showed the intersection on Camden High Street, north London, just outside a pub called the World’s End. Hayes said to the players: “This is Camden, England. This is where I’m from. This is what made me.”
So when Hayes returned to the UK ahead of England vs USWNT at Wembley on Saturday, U.S. Soccer decided to use the pub as the setting for her pre-match press conference. A press conference in a pub — that must be a first.
So, at 11am on a Monday morning, The Athletic was weaving our way down a pub’s staircase, round the bar, past some less-than-salubrious toilets, into Underworld, a black-walled basement club where Hayes spent much of her youth dancing until 3am.
“I remember many an evening we would come in here, and thankfully it still smells of fart and feet,” said Hayes, who’d been greeted with a ‘Welcome back Emma’ sign outside. “It was a big indie place for me back in the day and I definitely have not seen this place in the daylight so that’s refreshing.”
Although the music blaring from the speakers remains the same, the agenda and vibe at this time in the morning were slightly different — not least the fact that tea, coffee and pastries were being served.
With a table and mics set up where Hayes used to rock and roll, the head coach looked out to a bizarre mix of her mum, sisters, school friends, former and current colleagues, and the international media.
Asked how she felt to be in the Underworld with those closest to her, every word captured on camera, navigating questions from coaching at Wembley to Donald Trump, from USWNT’s Thanksgiving plans to the homophobic abuse aimed at her former player Sam Kerr, from developing the national youth team strategy to Hayes’ top tourist tips, Hayes said simply: “F****** brilliant!”
Hayes may be coaching in America but she has not changed, firmly shaped by her upbringing in north London.
She credits her friends and family for keeping her humble. Those in the audience had shared her journey with her since she was a child, people who continue to run projects across the London borough at Camden Sports Development or youth leagues at Regent’s Park.
“My community is what I am and what I care about,” she said. “I’m so stoked to be here with people that have been massive in my life. My friends have never changed and I’m grateful for that. If you say otherwise, there’ll be about 50 of them lining up at the door for you… I’m kidding.
“Are you?” one heckled.
“I probably shouldn’t say this in a press conference,” said Hayes, “but one of my friends used to live up in Delancey Street and she lived in a big posh house, a nice five-storey, it was lovely, gorgeous.
“I used to go up there and pretend, maybe one day, this would be a life for me. I used to come home with a little posh accent and my mum would say, ‘Your s*** still stinks’”.
That was one way to keep your daughter grounded.
When it comes to her tenure as the USWNT boss, Hayes is, in her words, “fresh out of the packet”, but she is already thinking about her legacy, explaining that unifying the US talent pool under a women’s football development strategy is “going to be the biggest piece” of what she leaves behind.
She described herself as a “builder” who wants to lay foundations for the long term, and importantly she wants to devise a strategy for players and staff across all departments which is centred around a “female lens”.
“Everything we create, the systems, frameworks, methodology, everything is done through a male lens. I seek to challenge that. If we value women and want to keep women in the workplace, we have to be creative because raising children is the hardest job in the world and your children need you too. But you’re entitled to be able to do that and have a job in football. We have to think through a female lens. That’s at the heart of everything.”
Hayes said of her own accord: “I’m not going to answer any questions on men’s football. I know exactly where I am and what I want to do with my life. That’s in the women’s game, developing everything in and around that.”
From meeting the press to pulling a pint, @emmahayes1 is a woman of the people! pic.twitter.com/MBlZNkheDA
— U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (@USWNT) November 25, 2024
On Saturday Hayes will be a visitor at what she called her “second home”, Wembley. The 48-year-old will have to go through a “weird moment” of humming the English and American anthems because she “loves them” both before coming up against former Chelsea players like her ex-captain Millie Bright.
Hayes momentarily feared making the jump from club to national-team management as she was unsure how the change in rhythm would affect her. For around 25 years, she had driven to the training ground six or seven days a week.
“I worried about that for about four seconds,” she said. “Then I said, ‘OK, what are the benefits?
“I get to get up and breathe, take Harry to school, go to the gym, create my schedule around those things, and not sacrifice the things that make me feel healthy.”
She added: “I definitely didn’t feel healthy at the end of my time at Chelsea. I don’t want to say it’s pressure. I just think it’s the stress, the toll it took on me. Doing that during menopause, I realised, was even harder.
“To get on top of all of these things, I feel like I’ve got my mojo back, my smile back and joy back. I didn’t realise how much I’d lost in that. I’m loving football more than ever.”
(Top photo: U.S. Soccer/Getty Images/Brad Smith)
