Jordan Hadaway: The Welsh teenager teaching the Real Madrid way

Gareth Bale and John Toshack were already footballing royalty in Wales when they joined Real Madrid, but there is a Welsh teenager hoping to make his name with the Spanish giants.

Jordan Hadaway, from Holywell in Flintshire, works as a coach for the Real Madrid Foundation and gets regular advice from former Wales striker Robert Earnshaw and ex-Premier League manager Nigel Adkins.

At just 19, he has also been Wales' youngest senior football manager, in charge of North East Wales football league side Caerwys - although he has just stepped down from the role to become first-team assistant coach at Cymru Premier side Cefn Druids.

It all points to a bright footballing future for someone who started coaching when he was just 14.

"I wasn't a very good player," Hadaway says with a smile.

"No, I was okay, a bit of a Tony Hibbert [former Everton right-back] - just steady.

"I got into coaching through a community programme and by the time I was 16 I was leading a soccer camps programme for girls and a school programme. Then I was a coach with Holywell Town's first team, worked with the reserves and then I joined Caerwys."

Hadaway spent a year in charge of Caerwys.

"I found it hard to start with but as time goes on it becomes more natural," he says.

"I shipped in a lot of players and shipped out a lot of players so I got who I wanted there."

In between managing Caerwys and studying for a teaching degree at Liverpool Hope University, Hadaway has worked with the Real Madrid Foundation.

His association with one of the biggest clubs in the world means a chance to learn from some footballing legends.

"We went for a coaching convention and we got a later flight and just missed Roberto Carlos," he says.

"We were sat on the plane and everyone was meeting Roberto Carlos.

"But Alvaro Arbeloa was there, Raul, Javier Mallo is the first-team conditioning coach who's won absolutely everything.

"It was basically lectures led by the academy coaches, first-team coaches - Raul, Santiago Solari, Roberto Carlos.

"Then we got to watch sessions live on the field from academy coaches. As well as learning we had a good time and connected with different people, so I think those four days really, really helped me.

"Networking with other coaches is good because I think it's important that you don't just stay in your Welsh bubble. You've got to get out there and speak to other people."

Jordan Hadaway coaching children at a Real Madrid Foundation session

Hadaway had hoped the Real Madrid Foundation involvement would take him across Europe to deliver coaching courses in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic meant he was only able to work in the United Kingdom, with his most recent assignment on the Isle of Wight in November.

"The foundation is across nine countries offering football clinics and international coaches to go in and coach," he says.

"You have Real Madrid technology and Real Madrid sessions that we deliver to the children, so then at the end of the week they've had the Real Madrid experience and they should be playing better and in the way that Real Madrid do."

Hadaway hopes having Real Madrid's name on his CV will open doors in the future, though he is unsure about pursuing a full-time coaching career.

He has plenty of experience already given that he does not turn 20 until January 2021.

"I think all my players know that I'm going to make mistakes because I'm only 19, but it's more about when you make that mistake how you rectify it," Hadaway says.

"You have to reflect on everything and plan everything and that will put you in good stead to coach because coaching is natural once you are out on the pitch, you've just got to set yourself up, [be] prepared and reflect on it to make sure that the next time the mistake you made doesn't happen again."

Former Southampton, Reading and Hull boss Adkins, who started his managerial career at Bangor City, is in weekly contact with Hadaway, having got to know him through connections in north Wales.

"He's very positive," says Hadaway. "Everything that he says is aimed at positivity, he's a really good guy."

Former Holywell Town manager Glyn Griffiths, Hadaway's assistant at Caerwys, is always on hand for advice.

The same is true of another contact Hadaway has made, ex-Wales striker Earnshaw.

Hadaway, who has studied for his Uefa B coaching licence, is also hoping to learn a thing or two from the Premier League's oldest manager in 2021.

"The day before lockdown I was supposed to be going to meet Roy Hodgson at the Crystal Palace training ground to watch his sessions but obviously because of Covid it got cancelled.

"Hopefully that will be rescheduled. Fingers crossed."