‘I’M NOT GIVING UP MY DREAMS’
FOUR years ago, Kaylen Hinds was the talk of the terraces in north Germany.
As former Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg kicked off yet another season in the country’s top flight, intrigue immediately turned towards the young Englishman donning the club’s vibrant green colours for the very first time.
Just months earlier, Hinds had swapped home comforts for a German adventure, hoping to learn from the country’s famously astute coaching and development system.
Any expectations of a gentle introduction were blown out of the water when the 19-year-old was thrown straight into the starting eleven for the campaign’s curtain raiser against Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund.
With the August sun beating down on the 30,000 supporters crammed inside the Volkswagen Arena, Klopp’s team of superstars containing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic and Mario Götze cantered to a win.
Yet even in defeat, the tenacious runs of Wolfsburg’s new London-born winger created a buzz of excitement.
Dreams
“It was a surreal day, the stuff of dreams you could say,” Hinds told The NLP.
“I was a young boy in a new country, experiencing a new culture and suddenly I was playing against these icons of the game. I’d left the Arsenal academy that summer and things just moved at a million miles an hour. I was in the Bundesliga playing in a packed stadium, I couldn’t take it all in!”
Frustratingly, the rest of the season did not go to plan for the former England youth international. A competitive battle for starting spots saw Hinds eventually loaned out to the second division,
before the realities of being in a foreign land, far from friends and family began to set in.
“It was an amazing experience and something I’m so glad I did but perhaps I was just too young for it all,” he added.
“I was a teenager on my own in a flat, having to adapt to a new city, new food, a new language, it was all a bit too much. I ended up coming home after a year. In a way my whole time out there happened as a blur but without a doubt there were experiences to cherish.”
As is often the case in the brutal industry of football, a slowdown in momentum saw Hinds quickly fall from the game’s peak.
A stop-start year-long stint with then-Premier League side Watford came to an end in the summer of 2020, before the Covid-imposed shutdown of much of the footballing world saw Hinds endure a testing ten months without a club.
“It really is scary how things can change. I won’t lie, having no team during most of the lockdown was an extremely tough experience,” said Hinds.
“You worry that your ability will suffer, it almost certainly did. When you’re on your own you miss out on so many aspects of the game.
“It was a lonely time. I just had to keep my head down and trust that better days would come.
“I finally got a call from Aldershot in April to go over there for the final stages of the season. It was an almighty relief more than anything but wow that first game in Non-League was a shock to the system!
Prospect
“My body felt like it had been through a war by the end of my debut, but I was just so happy to be back doing what I love.”
Now, with the prospect of a full campaign ahead of him, Hinds, who is still only 23, is plotting a road to redemption.
Last month the attacker linked up with Steve Lovell’s Welling United and played a crucial role in the Wings’ last-gasp win against Concord Rangers at Park View Road on Bank Holiday Monday. The National League South is a far cry from where he once was but for Hinds, Welling represents the perfect springboard for a second bite at the professional game. “I’m not even close to giving up on my dreams,” he stated.
“I am mentally much stronger for what I have been through.
“The set-up is brilliant at Welling, they are a club that wants to get back into the National League. The prospect of a full season to prove myself is so exciting. I’m back in business. Y o u definitely haven’t heard the end from me yet!”