Worse jobs going around. Whanganui lad.
I think some people criticised the Nix for having folks in unpaid roles, but hey this young bloke took a chance, and now he's at the WC as a 25 yr old
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360989368/im-addicted-all-whites-analyst-logan-hughes-knows-their-world-cup-rivals-inside-out
After finishing high school, Hughes went to Dunedin to study a sport management degree, but after one semester, he found his calling when the Wellington Phoenix advertised an unpaid analyst internship. Interviewed by Giancarlo Italiano, then coach Ufuk Talay's head analyst, he got the role, then made a life-changing decision.
I think some people criticised the Nix for having folks in unpaid roles, but hey this young bloke took a chance, and now he's at the WC as a 25 yr old
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360989368/im-addicted-all-whites-analyst-logan-hughes-knows-their-world-cup-rivals-inside-out
After finishing high school, Hughes went to Dunedin to study a sport management degree, but after one semester, he found his calling when the Wellington Phoenix advertised an unpaid analyst internship. Interviewed by Giancarlo Italiano, then coach Ufuk Talay's head analyst, he got the role, then made a life-changing decision.
“I had to call up my dad and say, look, I know you've just forked out a lot to get me to university in the first place. Six months in, I want to leave and go to Wellington for an unpaid job. What do you think?
“And he totally said 'if you're going to do it, don't half-arse it, do it'. It was almost emulating [Matthew] McConaughey [who has told a similar story about quitting his law studies to pursue acting].”
“That gave me full confidence and I made the decision. It was probably the first grown-up decision I've made in my life, where I said Dunedin was nice, it was okay, but this could turn into something else, and this is my real passion, right?“
Hughes said his time as a Phoenix intern was “the making of” him. He worked part-time jobs washing dishes at a café and delivering pizzas while sleeping on a mattress on a mate's floor, but “it didn't feel hard. In fact, it was some of the funnest times of my life”.
“I was learning so much of the game through Chief and Uffie. They were really the foundation of my tactical learning of football. They taught me how to look at football, not from a fan's point of view or at the pub point of view, but how to really analytically break it down.”
Hughes spent four seasons at the Phoenix, the last two of them as the head analyst, then moved to England to take on that role at third-tier club Lincoln City.
Once the All Whites role came his way in early 2024, he left The Imps after one season, but he was still following closely as they won promotion to the second-tier Championship during the season just gone.