How England legend inspired Sydney FC's rising star

When the 2023/24 A League season began, centre-back Hayden Matthews had one simple goal: make his debut for Sydney FC. And he admits at the start, it was “far-fetched”.

But in the space of four months he’s gone from a debutant to highly touted emerging talent.

Now his ambition has changed.

“The main goal now is to win the competition and I think we have the quality within the group to win and anything less would be a bit of a disappointment for all of us,” he told Wide World of Sports.

Hayden Matthews during a Sydney FC match in April.

For Matthews, he agrees his first season has been a “big whirlwind”.

In January, he made his debut off the bench for the Sky Blues and a few days after signed his first professional contract, inking a three-year deal.

A month later and he’d forced his way into coach Ufuk Talay’s starting side.

“(This year has been) everything I’ve dreamed of really, and for it to all happen so quickly has been pretty surreal,” he said.

Hayden Matthews defends during Sydney’s elimination final against Macarthur Bulls.

Now the 19-year-old is a key man in Sydney’s finals campaign.

From an early age, the talent was there. But football wasn’t his first sport.

With a father who played tennis and a mum who was a runner, the sporting pedigree was evident but more aligned to individual sports.

“When I was really young we were in tennis and I was playing tennis with my older brother,” Matthews recalled.

“But then my older brother started at school and then mum wanted him to play a team sport so he ended up joining one of the local football teams.

“Then a year later when I was four turning five, I played in his under 7s team and it was the first time I ever played football.”

At that age, playing against older kids, the potential was there.

However, it wasn’t until the 2010 World Cup when his love of football really started to develop.

As the likes of Tim Cahill and Brett Holman hit the back of the net for the Socceroos, Matthews found himself also keeping an eye on England and admiring the class of Wayne Rooney.

“The 2010 World Cup was the big turning point for me … I remember watching England play and I fell in love with Wayne Rooney and became a massive Man Utd supporter and started watching a lot of the Premier League from that point forward,” he said.

Wayne Rooney battles for possession with Bastian Schweinsteiger at the 2010 World Cup.

Admiring Rooney, meant Matthews was naturally a striker from a young age.

But then in under 10s it all changed as the centre backs at his St George team moved on.

“I got put back there in the trials and they kept me there because they wanted me to control the game from back there and I haven’t looked back since making that transition,” he explained.

From junior football in St George, to a Sydney FC Academy player at 12, the 195cm defender has made the progression to the big time and will be a key fixture on Friday night at Allianz Stadium as his side takes on the Mariners in the first leg of their semi-final.

A successful campaign across both legs will put them into the final and Matthews knows how important the home ground advantage will be in this first fixture.

“All the boys are buzzing, we’re really looking forward to it, especially playing at home, having it first,” he said.

“We know how good our fans are and how big of a difference they make.”