‘That was for my dad’: Emma Hayes guides US to Olympic gold just 10 weeks after taking charge

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Emma Hayes had made America great again. She has extended her remarkable coaching CV by guiding the United States to a history-making fifth Olympic title – their first since the London 2012 – to secure her status as one of the greatest managers in the women’s game.

At the full-time whistle, the 47-year-old kissed a necklace. As a packed Parc des Princes started to party, she was determined to snatch a personal moment. “It’s an American eagle,” Hayes later said of the pendant. “It’s my father’s and it’s so fitting that my dad gave me this American necklace. That was him. I wouldn’t be there without him. That was for my dad, I felt him with me the whole performance.”

This match was written in the stars for Hayes, who 12 years ago in London was in the crowd on the halfway line with her late father, Sid, watching the US edge out Japan to seal their fourth Olympic gold. It was Sid who had encouraged her to pursue her long held dream of taking over the reins of this women’s football superpower, but only when the time was right.

It is strange to think that just 84 days ago, she was celebrating on the Old Trafford pitch in front of Sir Alex Ferguson after guiding Chelsea to a fifth consecutive domestic title. With her £1.25 million contract, she has been unfazed by taking on the biggest job in women’s football and has been her usual charismatic self in press conferences in the French capital.

It was no different after her team had sealed Olympic glory through Mallory Swanson’s 57th-minute goal, which was enough to seal Hayes’ destiny and broke Brazilian hearts – including that of Marta. Brazil’s 38-year-old icon had returned from a two-match suspension for what is likely to be her final international appearance. A silver medallist from the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, she will have to be content with a third.

With their status as Olympic champions confirmed, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” reverberated around the stadium. Hayes actually hails from Camden, but it was the perfect soundtrack for the perfect moment.

“I’ve had a f—— blast this past month,” said Hayes, who honed her early coaching career in the US. “I had a ball. I felt at times like I was at university. I felt lighter than I felt in a long time. America means more to me than most people realise. I was a 20-year-old who’d come from a pretty stuffy society who didn’t embrace the women’s game and I went to America and they looked after me, they nurtured me and gave me opportunities that England never ever again. I’m so happy to repay that faith. I’m a delighted, half-American today.”

Her side pulled through a frantic and somewhat disjointed match disrupted by continuous water breaks in the searing Parisian heat but it could have been a different story had Brazil been more streetwise in front of goal, and had Alyssa Naeher, the USA’s own veteran 36-year-old shot stopper, not heroically clawed away Adriana’s injury-time headed effort. The women in yellow desperately sniffed an equaliser, but it would not come.

Hayes has breathed new life into a team that for the past two Olympics have underachieved and got knocked out of last year’s World Cup in the round of 16. They are also in the throes of a rebuild following the high-profile retirements of Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz – and Hayes has been bold in her selection choices.

She made the high-profile call to leave Alex Morgan, a winner of two World Cups and an icon across the Atlantic, out of her Olympic squad, in favour of a more youthful talent. It is a decision that has paid off all tournament and it was vindicated in this final where the young attacking duo of Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman, the latter being the daughter of the former basketball icon Dennis, taunted a Brazil side that while energetic became increasingly devoid of all attacking edge.

The real litmus test will be in three years’ time at the Women’s World Cup in Brazil, but the signs suggest Hayes has cracked the international code, but for now she will bask in this American dream. “This is professionally, the biggest thing I’ve ever done, without taking anything away from Chelsea,” she added, in somewhat disbelief that her mum had spent the afternoon with Tom Cruise in the stands. “My mum had Mission Impossible today.”

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