“I went from non league right-back to Premier League striker and I’m still playing age 50″ – have you guessed it yet? It’s Barry Hayles.
After playing in the Premier League for 18 years, he is still in fine form and has no plans of quitting football anytime soon.
Hayles, a former Jamaican international, turned 50 in May and is now in his 20th club spell after a career that saw him score over 315 goals and reach double figures at the highest levels.
A Barry Hayles masterclass at WHL 🔥#OnThisDay | 2003pic.twitter.com/EVAIXGJcBE
— Fulhamish (@FulhamishPod) August 30, 2020
Hayles was born in Lambeth in south London in 1972 and began his career at Stevenage Borough and Willesden Hawkeye before he joined the Football League with the third-tier Bristol Rovers in 1977.
Speaking to Daily Star Sport, Hayles said: “I went to Stevenage as a right-back and the manager said he needed a striker. I scored in that game and that was it.
“I was happy as a defender, I thought that was my best position but apparently not. Some of my old team-mates still say I was better at the back but there we go.”
He progressed from a semi-pro defender into a top-flight forward before he knew it, getting signed up by Ian Holloway, who was in charge Bristol Rovers, for a substantial fee of £250,000.
Hayles added: “Yeah there was definitely pressure on my shoulders. The manager had called me the summer before and said he’d come back in, and true to his word he did.
“He said he would build a team that would get me goals and my first season I got the golden boot in the third tier with 23 in the league.
“Holloway was a great man-manager – he knew when to have fun and when things needed to be serious. We had a lot of fun.”
He netted 36 goals for the club over 76 fixtures and turned down a decision to sign for rivals Bristol City much to the delight of Bristol Rovers fans, but Fulham came calling.
The Cottagers was taken over by businessman Mohamed Al Fayed, planned to spend £20m on redeveloping Craven Cottage and bringing in new players with the target of getting into the Premier League within five seasons.
As Hayles joined for £2million under manager Kevin Keegan, he helped Fulham into the second tier with eight goals – and then helped guide them to the top flight with 18 goals two years later.
He added: “Bristol City had put in a £2m bid in that was accepted by the club but I turned it down, I couldn’t go there. I took the gamble and stayed but when Fulham came, it was a perfect fit to go back to London.
“Al Fayed had come in and he brought players from higher leagues to Fulham and he completely changed the ethos of the club. At the same time there was youngsters like Sean Davis coming through so it was a great mix.
“Keegan signed me so that was a buzz, when I came in he made me feel like I was one of the best players in the world and it all clicked from there.”
All hail, Barry Hayles! ✨#FFC pic.twitter.com/4vhoJzWgPM
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) May 17, 2020
Fulham stunned everyone with their 2000/01 Division One promotion, coming after French icon Jean Tigana had taken the helm, with the likes of Louis Saha, Steve Finnan, Chris Coleman and Luis Boa Morte shining.
Hayles added: “The players we had as well as a great social group, it all blended on and off the pitch. It was a perfect fit.”
Fulham picked up 30 wins from 46 league fixtures to secure an 101 point tally, with Hayles and Boa Morte both finding the net 18 times and Saha getting 27 goals.
Hayles said via the Daily Star about his route to the top: “It was an amazing feeling to look back at where I came from, but I always had confidence in myself.”
Hayles, who at one point had a talk with Tigana and was told to stop getting in the face of opponents, scored eight times in his first top-flight campaign with Fulham ending up in 13th place.
He added: “He was by far the best player I played with. He had it all. In training I used to tell him to tone it down to give the lads a bit of confidence. He was that good.”
Saha played for France, Hayles was called up by three different international sides starting with the England C, made up primarily of non league stars, as a youngster.
He scored twice across his two appearances, then the Cayman Islands came calling, before FIFA changed the regulations over who was eligible – and then made 10 appearances for Jamaica.
Hayles said: “For the Cayman Islands back then you could qualify if you had a British passport, so I ended up going out there and they changed the rules during the week!
“With Jamaica, they came in after I got into the Premier League with Fulham but it wasn’t a great set-up at the time, a bit of disarray. It wasn’t what I expected.”
Fulham also finished 14th and 9th, but Hayles was being played in a reduced role under former team-mate Chris Coleman – leaving in 2004 for Sheffield United, then didn’t get on well with Neil Warnock, so was then brought in by Dennis Wise at Millwall then Ian Holloway again at Plymouth and Leicester before a final EFL transfer to Cheltenham Town.
By this point, Hayles was 38, he went on to retire soon after before a series of offers kept him on the pitch a 12 years later.
Hayles said: “I retired after leaving Cheltenham and then I got a phone call. A had an old team-mate at Truro City and he asked if I wanted to go and play for them.
“I met the chairman and he asked for me to come on board and I scored 20 goals that season.”
He had two more spells with the Cornish outfit, with Hayles handed keys to what was described to be a ‘plush mobile home’ after driven down for each fixture.
He scored 42 goals in three-and-a-half seasons with the White Tigers, then scored eight in 21 for St Albans in the 2012/13 season, 15 goals for Chesham United before heading to Windsor in July 2022 after three seasons with Merstham.
Hayles has so far played seven times for Windsor in the Combined Counties League Premier Division North, scoring in their win over Flackwell Heath back in September.
Hayles, who has also spent two 10 minute spells in the non league sin bin, gave a prediction in 2002 that his career would go on longer than most footballers would usually have.
He has no plans to call it a day on the pitch whilst also holding down a role in a primarily coaching position – and also plays for England’s over 50s.
Hayles concludes: “If the offers keep coming in then I don’t see a reason to stop.”
📅 Started out with Stevenage in 1993
⚽️ Premier League scorer with Fulham
😳 Still a non-league striker at 50Veteran forward Barry Hayles has had a rollercoaster career 🎢https://t.co/IAAj9QS0pe
— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) December 17, 2022
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