Nicky Hayen (born 16 August 1980) is a Belgian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who is currently the head coach of

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

club

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

Career

From 1999 on, Hayen played nine seasons at the highest level of Belgian professional football with

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium. With more than 41,500 inhabitants, it is on ...

, before moving to

RBC Roosendaal RBC, previously known as RBC Roosendaal, is a football club based in Roosendaal, Netherlands. RBC currently plays in the fifth-tier Vierde Divisie after bankruptcy in 2011, restarting the club in the tenth tier Vijfde Klasse. History 1912– ...

in the second division in the Netherlands for two seasons. He returned to Belgium in 2010 by joining

Oud-Heverlee Leuven Oud-Heverlee Leuven (), also called OH Leuven or OHL, is a Belgian professional football club from the city of Leuven. It was created in 2002 from the merger of three clubs, '' F.C. Zwarte Duivels Oud-Heverlee'', whose registration number it i ...

and was part of the team achieving promotion to the

. In the summer of 2012, he was loaned out for one season to Antwerp, but when the season ended he was released and became player-coach at Dender EH in the

Belgian Third Division The Belgian Third Division (, ) was the third highest level in Football in Belgium, Belgian football. It had two leagues of 18 teams each (Belgian Third Division A, A and Belgian Third Division B, B) at the same level. This competition, originall ...

. In February 2014, he was relieved of his coaching duties at Dender EH due to bad result, but stayed with the team as player. On 31 December 2021, Hayen was announced as manager of

Cymru Premier The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. It was found ...

club Haverfordwest County on an initial 18-month contract. This was duly extended for a further 12 months upon confirmation of safety towards the end of the 2021–22 season, after an excellent run of form. Hayen was the first Belgian manager to work in the Cymru Premier. He left the club in June 2022 to return to Belgium to take up a position as manager of

's under-23 team, Club NXT. On 18 March 2024, he was appointed as caretaker manager of Club Brugge, following the dismissal of Ronny Deila. Hayen turned Brugge's fortunes around, and won the Belgian championship after a 0–0 draw against

Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. They compete in the Belgian Pro League, the top flight of Belgian football. Their matricule number is 12. The club plays home games at the 29 ...

. He signed a permanent deal as coach of Club Brugge on 3 June 2024.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Oud-Heverlee Leuven *

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1909 and folded in 2016, when it was replace ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Manager

Club Brugge *

: 2023–24 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

: 2024–25

Individual

*: 2024 * Belgian Golden Shoe Coach of the Year: 2024

References

1980 births Living people Belgian men's footballers Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Sint-Truidense V.V. players RBC Roosendaal players Oud-Heverlee Leuven players Royal Antwerp F.C. players F.C.V. Dender E.H. players Eerste Divisie players Belgian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Men's association football forwards Sint-Truidense V.V. managers S.K. Beveren managers Belgian football managers Haverfordwest County A.F.C. managers Expatriate football managers in Wales Footballers from Sint-Truiden Club Brugge KV non-playing staff F.C.V. Dender E.H. managers 21st-century Belgian sportsmen {{Belgium-footy-forward-stub