The first text Emma Hayes received after winning Olympic gold in Paris wasn't from a federation president or a fellow women's football coach. It was from Sir Alex Ferguson, watching from a bar in New York.
"To think that the first text I got when we won Olympic gold was from Sir Alex says everything about that man," Hayes said on the Men in Blazers podcast. "He told me how proud he was of me. It was like, 'You're Sir Alex Ferguson. Women's football probably hasn't been in your world, but that shows how modern you really are.'"
That's a detail worth sitting with. Ferguson — 82, long retired, zero professional stake in the USWNT — made that gesture. Hayes clearly hasn't forgotten it.
A masterclass in name-dropping, with substance behind it
Hayes worked through a roster of coaches and leaders she admires, and what she took from each of them is telling about how she actually thinks about the game.
On Thomas Tuchel, now England's head coach: "Diagonality, how to see football in a way that...watching him coach, he makes sessions so intense but so much fun. He is such a great thinker. Orator. A really articulate guy." Not a bad endorsement from someone who also built a dynasty at Chelsea women while Tuchel was doing the same on the men's side of Stamford Bridge.
Mauricio Pochettino got the most personal framing — Hayes is a Tottenham fan, and called him the source of her "greatest memories." Make of that what you will given Spurs' trophy cabinet.
- Vic Akers (longtime Arsenal women's coach): "Values, standards. It's not who you are, it's what you represent."
- Dawn Staley (US women's basketball): "She is a badass, brilliant, brilliant coach" — Hayes traveled Japan with her and clearly came away a fan.
- Tony DiCicco (former USWNT boss, 1999 World Cup winner): "He built a family. Those players that played for him, they loved him."
That last one stands out. DiCicco is Hayes' most direct predecessor in terms of legacy — Olympic gold, World Cup, transformational squad culture. Framing him through the lens of family-building rather than tactics says something about what Hayes is trying to replicate in her own tenure.
What this means heading into CONCACAF qualifying
Hayes has been in charge since May 2024, and the résumé is already stacking up: Olympic gold, a SheBelieves Cup, and a broader squad rebuild that has introduced a wave of younger talent alongside the returning U-23 program. The USWNT's depth is genuinely expanding, not just recycling veterans.
The CONCACAF W Championship is next — the pathway to the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil. A fifth World Cup title is the obvious target, and the odds on the USWNT will reflect their status as perennial favourites once the tournament picture firms up. But Hayes is building something with a longer shelf life than one tournament cycle, and the cultural architecture she's describing — DiCicco's family, Akers' standards, Staley's edge — is the blueprint she's working from.
Ferguson texted her from a bar in New York. That's not a bad barometer for how far her reputation now reaches.
