Pride, Purpose and Pints: USWNT's Emma Hayes Celebrates England Homecoming | OneFootball

“I want to win the World Cup,” said a defiant Emma Hayes, days before she’s set to lead the U.S. women’s national team out to a crowd of 80,000 at the historic Wembley Stadium in London.

The manager kicked off her homecoming trip back to England this week with a trip to The World’s End in Camden, a pub that she frequented during her youth. Hayes wasn’t just joined by the press, but also by friends, family and football youth group leaders in an occasion that ended with her pouring pints.

It wasn’t hard to see that Hayes’s return to home soil wasn’t just about beating England on Saturday, it was an opportunity to reflect on how much happiness the new role has brought her.

“It feels f-----g brilliant,” she said. “I’m very grateful for everything that my country and city has given me. I’ve learned more and more as I’ve aged that you have to just go for it and enjoy life.

“My community is what I am and what I care about. I am stoked to be here with people that have been massive in my life.”

The 48-year-old is used to creating magic with any team she touches, and her arrival in the U.S. in July was no different.

The USWNT’s legacy speaks for itself. It is the most successful international women’s soccer team in history, winning four Women’s World Cups, five Olympic gold medals, nine Concacaf W Championship titles and one Concacaf W Gold Cup.

However, Hayes decided to take hold of the reins during one of their most challenging periods. Having never failed to reach the semifinals of a Women’s World Cup, Vlatko Andonovski’s side crashed out of the 2023 tournament, losing to Sweden on penalties in the round of 16.

Hayes grew up in the Camden neighborhood of North London. / IMAGO/PA Images

In under two months, the Ballon d’Or Women’s Coach of the Year managed to turn things around— exceeding expectations, as always. The USWNT won Olympic gold in the summer, and has since recorded three consecutive friendly wins under the English manager, including back-to-back wins against Iceland and followed by a win over Argentina.

But her trip to Wembley Stadium will no doubt be her biggest challenge yet, especially on a personal level. Hayes is certainly no stranger to the stadium that’s hosted several of her 16 trophy wins during her time in charge at Women’s Super League (WSL) side Chelsea.

“There’s no denying that it’s a different type of game,” Hayes said. “I’ve had to think through how I’m going to be standing there as a complete away coach, and it will be full of English people. But I don’t put much thought into the feel and the atmosphere of a place that honestly feels like a second home to me. I know I’m going back to Wembley and I’ll have to go into the away dressing room, but I get to experience another opportunity between the Olympics champions and the current European champions, in a game where there’s top quality on show for both sides.

“There are two managers who get on tremendously well, and I’m looking forward to seeing Sarina [Wiegman]. Of course, I have to go through a weird moment when the national anthem is playing, but it is something I will hum along to as I’ve always done, being the English person I am, but I will also do the same for the American anthem because I love them both.

“And beyond that weird moment, and seeing some of the competitors I’ve come up against, or players that I’ve gone to war with, it’s business come kickoff and I hope for a top, entertaining game in front of a sellout.”

Along with sharing her Thanksgiving plans and tourist tips for her American colleagues in London, the Camden-born coach also shed light on her last coaching spell in London with Chelsea before taking the U.S. job.

“I was a little afraid of how this rhythm was going to affect me,” Hayes said. “I’m so used to getting in the car and driving to the training ground. It was probably 25 years of doing that, six to seven days a week. I worried about that for about four seconds, and then said, 'Okay, ‘what are the benefits?'

“I get to get up and breathe, not rush. I get to take [son] Harry to school. I get to go to the gym. I get to create my schedule around those things. I don’t sacrifice the things that make me feel healthy. I actually felt quite unwell at the end of my time at Chelsea.

“I’m not going to say it’s pressure, I think the stress took its toll on me. I was also going through the menopause at the same time, so doing that was even harder. To be able to get on top of all those things, I feel like I’ve got my mojo back, my smile and my joy. I didn’t realize how much I’d lost in that and to do that means that I’m loving football more than ever.

“I’m clear about all the things that I want to do. I’m not going to answer questions about men’s football, not because I don’t expect you to ask me, but because I know exactly where I am and what I want to do with my life—and that’s in the women’s game.”