Emma Carol Hayes was born on October 18th, 1976, in Camden, London.
Sport-obsessed from a very young age it was football that ultimately won out, Hayes carving out a reputation as a decent midfielder playing for local sides around the capital.
In the summer she could be found ‘around the flats’ playing every evening until late. At the weekends, she would attend Arsenal’s academy, a regular presence at Meadow Park from the age of 12 to 17.
| Per year | €1,176,881.29 | £991,067 |
| Per month | €98,073 | £82,588 |
| Per week | €22,632 | £19,058 |
| Per day | €3,224 | £2,714 |
| Per hour | €134 | £112 |
| Per minute | €2 | £1 |
At this juncture the women’s game in the UK was only semi-professionalised meaning there was very little money to be earned, but Hayes didn’t care about that.
To her, becoming a footballer was her destiny.
An accident when on a skiing trip with her school changed everything, a badly injured ankle requiring cartilage to be removed. It meant she could never kick a ball competitively again, the injury so severe she still suffers from it to this day.
It can only be imagined how devastating it must have been to have your life’s dream stolen from you at such a formative age.
Hayes’ response was to divert her drive and focus into her studies, attending Liverpool Hope University and graduating in European studies and sociology in 1999. Later she read for a master’s degree in international affairs.
While on Merseyside a new path opened up to her, coaching the university women’s side and from there she coached at grassroots level in Croydon.
Emma Hayes’ dream was to play football at a high level. She was now on her way to becoming one of the most successful and influential managers in the history of the women’s game.
How Much Is Emma Hayes Worth?
“Money for me is not a motivator.”
That’s what Hayes said on taking charge of the USWNT, additionally pointing out that there are no cash machines in heaven. For her, the job itself is what is fulfilling, the financial rewards merely a side issue.
Even so, with a salary in the region of $1.3m to coach the American national side, Hayes need never worry about that side issue again, the figure easily making her the highest paid female in football.
Moreover, it is a sum four times more than what she received at Chelsea. Indeed, going back 12 years to when she began there her yearly income was a mere £6000.
That is not to say that Hayes wasn’t already a wealthy individual prior to moving stateside. Her £350,000 salary at Chelsea in the latter years afforded her a house in Muswell Hill that she lived in with her son Harry.
Emma Hayes has an estimated net worth of £3m.
Early Years
In 2001 an opportunity arose to work at summer camps in Long Island, New York and Hayes grabbed it with both hands.
She arrived in the US with $1000 and a temporary visa, spending the next four years constantly fighting to have that visa extended, and though meeting her rent was always an issue, Hayes loved her work out there, teaching community-level players at a Major League Soccer Camp.
One afternoon a chance encounter with the USWNT goalkeeper Kim Wyant changed her life forever, Wyant overhearing an English accent bark out instructions to boys playing on a nearby field.
Whatever was said impressed the keeper enough to put a word in at the Long Island Lady Riders who offered Hayes a coaching position following a persuasive interview.
Aged just 24, she was now taking training with a W-League team. A year later she was named USL W-League coach of the year after leading the Riders to the summit of the Eastern Conference.
Naturally such a swift rise to prominence made a lot of waves and for Hayes it led to an offer to coach Iona Gaels, a college team based in New York. Following two fruitful years there she returned to Britain, appointed as Academy Director at Arsenal.
Arsenal Ladies at the time were by some distance the most dominant side around and in her two years there that superiority only heightened. Remarkably, they won 11 trophies across her short reign.
Which was more than enough to convince Chicago Red Stars to recruit her as head coach in 2008, her stint in the Windy City leading to consultancy roles at Western New York Flash and Washington Freedom.
Hayes has stated numerous times since that, though she was born and raised in the UK, it was America who made her.
Chelsea
When Hayes took charge of Chelsea in 2012 they were still a part-time operation. The facilities were basic. Aspirations were limited. “We didn’t even have a bag of balls,” Hayes has claimed tongue only half in cheek.
She left 12 years later having guided the club to seven WSL titles and five FA Cup triumphs, not to mention a Champions League final.
On a weekly basis they were the favourites in the football odds and Chelsea are now considered the benchmark of the English game, with a team packed with bona fide superstars, and facilities that are the envy of others.
Almost all of this is down to Hayes, a one-women force of nature who challenged the club at every turn to improve and did likewise with players.
In due course she instilled a winning mentality in West London that was a reflection of her. Furthermore, the players loved her, citing her advice and support off the pitch to be invaluable and her coaching to be of a ground-breaking, elite standard.
All told, it is a building of a dynasty that is reminiscent of what Sir Alex Ferguson did at Manchester United, a man who Hayes strongly admires and now considers a friend.
USWNT
In November 2023 it was announced that Hayes was to become the head coach of the United States Women’s Football Team. The most prestigious job in the women’s game going to its greatest coach. It felt fated. It felt right.
First though, Hayes had to fulfil her obligations at Chelsea, steering them to a seventh league title in a little over a decade and once this was achieved it left very little time to fly across the pond and prepare her new team for the imminent Olympics.
True to type, she made a mockery of adversity, guiding America undefeated through the tournament, winning gold.
In the history of women’s football the USWNT have traditionally been the dominant nation, winning four World Cups and in possession of so many of the game’s legends.
Having now dropped to fourth in the world rankings however, Hayes has a major job on her hands to resurrect their stature.
What’s the betting she does so and in a short period of time too.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
