The Big Interview: Haley Bugeja
The Malta sensation feels like she's been around forever, yet she's still only 20. Reflecting on breaking through as a 14-year-old to WFC, the Inter forward discusses a unique journey...
There are not many 20-year-old’s who can sit down and reflect on a senior career which is already six years old.
But as we sit and speak just days after her twentieth birthday, that is the reality for Inter striker Haley Bugeja, but given the way the youngster speaks with such clarity and assurance, it’s not hard to believe she’s experienced plenty in her career already.
The Maltese international made her senior club debut for Mgarr United at just 14, and incredibly made her senior Malta debut the same season, at the same age.
“Genuinely? It was no purely no pressure,” says Bugeja, when I ask how she felt representing the country she’d grown up in while not even close to senior age.
“There’s the natural pressure which comes with representing your country, but being so young it didn’t really hit me that I was representing my country. Malta isn’t that big, but it gave me so much pride and allowed me to be myself and show my game to everyone.”
Check out over 100 more unique stories in WFC’s Premium section, available for just £45 for 12 months, paid in one go, or a £6 a month rolling subscription.
All subscriptions come with a 7-day free trial to allow you to explore our full archive.
Plus, guarantee you everything that is to come over the next 12 months…
Check out other recent Big Interviews…
She’s not wrong when she says Malta isn’t big, with its half a million inhabitants ranking it 45th out of 51 countries in Europe for population.
Yet the quaint ever-more-popular holiday destination sits comfortably inside the top 100 of the FIFA rankings and holds its own against bigger rivals, with the recent appointment of Manuela Tesse as head coach seen as something of a coup.
“Football in Malta has grown significantly, and I think we can finally say we are at a level where people are competing for places. It’s not just 11 players, there are players sat back at home not getting called up.
“It was always a dream to put on a national jersey. Yes, it came very quickly, I remember watching a game with my dad and saying how many years away that was, and then it came in only a few years.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Women's Football Chronicles to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.