When Hayden was 6 years old he arrived home from school one day and timidly asked his father if he could play soccer (as it was called in Australia then). The question was asked timidly because his father grew up playing Australian Rules Football (AFL) and was heavily involved in Rugby League as a professional strength and conditioning coach. Hayden´s father replied ¨Yes mate, of course you can. That sounds great¨. So immediately a ball was found and the practice began in the back room of their house. 

Hayden´s father made Hayden take his first kicks of a football with his non-dominant left foot as his father believed that to be able to play any sport equally off both sides was invaluable. So the training began and Hayden played his first football for his local school that year. 

It was clear that Hayden had a natural ability for the game of football with some natural speed, agility and the ability to read the game. He really enjoyed each game and looked forward to every weekend to be able to play. His ability for the game was supported with him receiving the team’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice by the time he was 10 years of age.

At the age of 10, Hayden was selected in the local area representative teams, the Hunter Valley Hawks whereby he would play with his local team each weekend and with the representative team once per month. It was at the age of 10 years, while watching the 2006 World Cup that he turned to his father and said ¨Dad, I want to play football professionally and to play for Australia¨. Hayden´s father replied ¨That´s great mate. I can help you with that¨ and from there Hayden´s training and preparation began.

From this time Hayden began learning about and training his speed, agility and stability with regular gym and speed sessions along with his football training. At the age of 11 he was selected for a local A grade team in his age group. The following year when the representative team was reduced from 2 teams to 1 team and went from playing together monthly to every weekend, Hayden again was selected in the representative team.

At this time Hayden is beginning to take his football seriously and he moves with his family to Spain (2009). While Hayden is well accepted in Spain, he was unable to play competition football for the first 9 months as the Football Federation Australia took that long to clear his paperwork. Finally Hayden began playing with El Planter in the under 16 competition, securing a position at right lateral defense. While playing against children one year older than himself his speed, strength and aggressive style of play begins to be noticed and Hayden has a very successful season.

The following season sees Hayden continue to develop his technical skills, speed, agility and strength with consistent training in football, the gym, speed training and lots of game time. For this season Hayden is selected in the Puzol Cadete A team to play in Division 1 Group 1 in the under 16 competition. Another very successful season that sees him improve alot both technically and athletically and he is clearly a stand out with his athleticism and game skills.

By the end of the 2011/12 season Hayden is improving incredibly both as a footballer and an athlete. He is running his 40 meters in under 5.060 seconds, his Illinois agility test in 15.51 seconds, squatting 150 kg and measures 61.5 ml/kg/min in a maximal fitness test. He is actually running his 40 meters well under the 5.00 seconds but he has not been officially timed. All very impressive for a professional footballer and super impressive for a 15 year old. This results in Hayden being selected for Huracan Valencia under 19 team.

With a very successful season behind him and looking forward to a sensational season in front of him, Hayden trains the pre-season with a focus on technical football skills and speed. His school program is adapted so he can train his football like a professional but still complete his schooling.

After a super successful off season Hayden gets even stronger and faster – achieving a half squat of 200 kg and running 30 meters in 4.00 seconds (on dirt in football boots). However the first two weeks of training with his new club were very intense on quite a hard surface and resulted in a bad injury for Hayden. MRI scans confirmed that Hayden had osteitis pubis which is bone swelling of his pubic bones. It is also suspected that he has a partial avulsion fracture at his hamstring attachment site. This meant Hayden played only 2 games of football in the 2012/13 season as he waited for the injury to heal. These 2 games he played while still injured.

As at the end of July 2013, Hayden´s injury appeared fully healed and he is back into full training. Care needs to be taken not to re-aggravate the injury or to get another associated injury. On his return to pre-season training Hayden was told he would have to recover in the lower grades at Huracan and progress up, which is not a problem considering he was injured for 12 months. However after the pre-season trial games it is clear that Hayden is the best player in his position but for unknown reasons the coach decides not to play him. This leaves Hayden with a dirty taste in his mouth as this is the second time in only 3 years of playing football in Valencia Spain that he has been burnt by politics in football, also as it is late in the pre-season it makes it difficult to find another high level team to play with as the clubs have closed their rosters. So Hayden decides to return to Puzol and play in the under 19 competition, change positions and work really hard on developing all of his new skills in his new attacking position. Puzol are very keen to have him.


After several games Hayden realizes the team he is playing in is terrible and it is extremely frustating for him as they don´t train hard or take the training seriously. Hayden has decided to rest from football and is hoping a move to England might re-ignite his passion to play again.