When Emma Hayes collects the award for Outstanding Contribution to London Football next month, the Chelsea boss will be back on home soil.
Hayes will be honoured with the most prestigious gong of the night at the 2022 London Football Awards at Camden’s iconic Roundhouse, a stone’s throw from where she was born and spent her formative years.
Hayes is a true Londoner but Camden, she says, is “my real hometown” and the Roundhouse has particular significance. As a child, Hayes remembers more than one visit with her mum and two sisters to see the circus, before the venue reopened to the capital’s live music scene when she was a teenager.
“My memories of that side of Camden, because I’m from further up the High Street near Mornington Crescent way, was a brilliant music scene,” Hayes told Standard Sport after learning she would be honoured at the LFAs on March 3.
“As a teenager, so many times [I was] hanging out in various bars and pubs there, listening to the very eclectic sounds that Camden brought. It wasn’t just punk rock. It was anything from reggae to dub to Indie. I’m a big fan of the music scene in Camden.
“My parents are from Camden so it’s an area that’s been in all our lives for a long time. But my memories of Camden aren’t ones I should summarise here!”
Hayes could go on talking about Camden’s music scene but she is appearing over Zoom to discuss another of her loves, football, and specifically her remarkable contribution to the women’s game in London and beyond. Her journey to becoming one of the sport’s leading coaches also began in Camden, on makeshift pitches around the Curnock Street Estate.
“My childhood was playing in different estates all of the time – chaos football, without bibs, without multiple balls, without coaches, without officials, without boundaries,” Hayes said. “I was a good footballer, so everybody accepted me. The boys never treated me any differently.
“We used to play with people who were much older, 10 years older, and it was quite scary. But also just brilliant. I don’t think you can replicate the joy of unorganised play. Those are my happiest memories: just playing football in the flats, and feeling like you were playing in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.”
Hayes’ playing career was cut short by injury but, over three decades later, she knows exactly what it feels like to win the FA Cup at Wembley, having lifted the trophy for the third time with Chelsea last season. She has also guided the Blues to four WSL titles and a first Champions League Final, and been named The Best FIFA Women’s Coach for 2021.
In January, Hayes was awarded an OBE on the Queen’s New Year’s honours list. It is a measure of Hayes, however, that one of her “proudest achievements” remains her part in setting up the Regents Park Youth League with her dad Sid — who she wants to be her guest at the LFAs — when she worked for Camden council in the late ‘90s.
“One of my jobs was to put together projects at the back end of the park, down Warren Street way,” Hayes said. “It was to stop Pakistani and Bengali communities from killing each other. When we first started it, we had a police presence and it was feisty to stay the least. It was quite scary in those early days. But I think it helped to build community. Every Saturday morning you can still go to Regents Park now and see games from 9am to 2pm. That’s one of my greatest achievements. My dad ran it for years. It’s still going and I think it’s the biggest – 3,000 kids strong.
“I take great pride in my community. I may not live in Camden now but Camden has been in my whole life. I know how big football is my life, so I know how big it will be for those kids every Saturday.”
Hayes is widely tipped to be the first female coach to move into the men’s game and she was on the shortlist for the vacant AFC Wimbledon job last year. But she is uncomfortable with the description of pioneer, and not even entirely comfortable being pigeonholed as a manager.
“Who ever accepts that [description]? You don’t,” she said. “Now I’m always introduced to everybody as ‘the football manager’, even among family and friends. It’s, ‘ah that’s the football manager’ or ‘oh you’re the Chelsea manager’. I’m just Emma.
“I’m just doing a job that I love and I happen to be one among many people who have helped drive the sport to where it is today.”
While there could scarcely be a more worthy winner of the award, there is a sense that the best may still be to come from Hayes, 45.
“I almost can’t believe how quickly my career’s gone to be honest,” she said. “There’s always more to come. I don’t know what that looks like but I know I’m not that old! I’ve been working in football in London since I was teenager. To be receiving this award in my hometown and more importantly in Camden, my real hometown, is a huge honour for me and my family.”
