The arduous task of getting the train back on track rests on his shoulders. Few trainers are able to make a glorious follow-up to such a task, but Nicky Hayen (43) still dares to do it at a wandering Club Brugge. This is the story of the interim coach of Blue-Black’s early career.
Things can sometimes get weird in football.
Perhaps Nicky Hayen never thought before this season that he would enter the play-offs as head coach of Club Brugge. And actually the start of his coaching career was the same – but in a negative sense.
In the spring of 2013, Hayen – still a player – assumed that he would become T2 of then second division club Antwerp next season. However, according to Hayen, the Great Old does not keep its promises.
It would ensure that the Truienaar’s coaching career starts about 30 kilometers away at third division Dender.
He starts working as a player-trainer – the Vincent Kompany avant la lettre. And another similarity with his colleague: that duo job is not really a success. Hayen is therefore dismissed after six months.
To top it all off, he also lost his job outside football a few months later. For a moment it all goes wrong for the coach.
Fortunately, an old acquaintance throws a surprising lifebuoy.
Around September 2014, Hayen was suddenly contacted by the Saudi first division club Najran. There is a certain Marc Brys head coach at that moment – he knows Hayen from the youth of STVV.
He doesn’t hesitate for a second to make the passed T2 his right hand.
His ambition to improve and drive to succeed in particular made me want him as my assistant.
Marc Brys
Ten years later, Brys still remembers why he called Hayen of all people to embark on the adventure. “He was a very intelligent, down-to-earth guy and was willing to go along with the project.”
“His ambition to improve and drive to succeed in particular made me want him as my assistant.”
Hayen can steal first from Najran and then from Al-Raed with the eyes of an experienced head coach. When the foreign adventure comes to an end, he returns to Belgium with that luggage.
In the lower series, the ex-Antwerp player got his chance as head coach at KVK Tienen, ASV Geel and Berchem Sport. And then his first challenge in the highest class awaited.
Nicky Hayen with instructions for Boli at STVV.
From a mixed start in Belgium
At childhood sweetheart STVV if he could take care of the youth of the Canaries. That same youth that he was a part of as a football player.
After the dismissal of – again – head coach Brys, Hayen was given the opportunity to show himself as a T1 for the first time in his career. With a victory on the field of rival Genk, he had not missed his start, but it would remain with that one victory.
After 6 games, Milos Kostic took over the sporting leadership and Hayen finished the season as his assistant.
At STVV I received compliments that there was clarity.
Nicky Hayen
Yet those few games as head coach were enough to convince. Waasland-Beveren, which was able to secure 1A through the court after corona issues, gave him an indefinite contract.
The Waaslanders saw a perfect match in the driven trainer who always put the collective first.
“During those few weeks of T1 at STVV, I received many compliments from the players that there was clarity and that the operation ran smoothly,” Hayen says confidently about his appointment. “That was confirmation for me that I can handle it at this level.”
Unfortunately, the marriage did not have a happy ending. Waasland Beveren had to go to 1B after a season’s delay, without Hayen.
Nicky Hayen during his appointment at Waasland-Beveren.
About club records in Wales
The Belgian rise was therefore firmly on hold.
A new opportunity was not forthcoming, so Hayen tried his luck on the other side of the canal. At Haverfordwest in Wales, the coach started the relegation battle, but soon after his sporting takeover the team started to rise in the rankings.
Hayen turned his players into a group that fought for every square meter. That resulted in the biggest home and away win in club history: 6-0 and 1-6.
An achievement that did not go unnoticed closer to home.
Club Brugge made its move by signing Hayen in 2022. Not for the A-team, but for the promises. Something that the chairman of his former employer did not like at all.
“I am desperately disappointed with the loss of Nicky,” Rob Edwards shared on the club website. “His performances on and off the field were remarkable.”
The love was so great that there was even a wish of congratulations upon his appointment as interim coach of Blue-Black.
