Mackenzie Hunt says he feels like his professional football career is finally getting started after he was released by his boyhood club Everton this summer.
The versatile left-sided player was on the brink of becoming the first Dubai-raised footballer to feature in the Premier League last season.
He was on the bench 20 times for the Goodison Park club, yet never made it onto the field as coach Sean Dyche favoured experience in the battle against relegation.
Hunt, 22, was offered an extra year at Everton after his contract expired at the end of the season, but was advised he would be no higher up the pecking order.
As such, he opted to leave a club with which he had been associated for 15 years and seek a fresh start elsewhere.
That meant a move down the divisions to Fleetwood Town, a fourth-tier club with big ambitions and Charlie Adam, the former Liverpool midfielder, as manager.
“I am excited to start my career in the men’s game,” Hunt said. “It will be a different challenge for me this season and I am excited that I will be playing.
“I feel like part of the team and am hoping to have a good season, in what feels like my first professional season in the men’s game.
“Fleetwood had been trying to get me on loan for the past two seasons. We had conversations and they were always keen on me.
“As soon as I made the decision to leave Everton my agent was speaking to a lot of clubs and Fleetwood were the keenest out of anyone.
“I met the manager, Charlie Adam, had a look round the training ground, and went from there.”
The Liverpool-born player had been associated with Everton since he was six years old, even though he lived in Dubai for seven years.
He attended Dubai English Speaking School (DESS) in Oud Metha from Years 4-6, before moving onto secondary school in the city.
After two years at Dubai English Speaking College, he opted to move back to Liverpool to pursue his opportunities with Everton’s academy.
He signed professional terms with the club when he was 17. Last season he was understudy to Ukraine international Vitaliy Mykolenko and former England player Ashley Young in the left-back position.
As Everton battled a points penalty and, as a result, relegation, the chances of a rookie player such as Hunt getting a chance to play diminished throughout the campaign.
“I felt like I was training well and doing all the right things, but the club was in a tough spot and the manager likes experience,” Hunt said.
“It was frustrating for me but it was also a good experience to be on the bench that many times as well. I felt like I was training well and there was a time when the left-back was injured I thought I had a chance of coming on or playing, but it didn’t happen in the end.”
Even if he is now going to have to work his way back to the Premier League, reaching the ranks of the English professional game from Dubai is a remarkable achievement.
Max Lohe, the director of sport at DESS, said Hunt’s sporting prowess was immediately apparent as soon as he joined the school.
He played in DESS’s senior Year 6 football team when he was two years underage, and represented the school at the British Schools Middle East Games in Bahrain.
“He had unbelievable vision for a boy of that age, his skills were good, and he had a good attitude,” Lohe said.
“He was determined, but always very modest and never brash or too big for his boots, even though he was a star in the making.
“There wasn’t even an ounce of arrogance about him. He fitted in at DESS right from Day 1. He was so humble, gave everything for the team, and always came off and thanked the coaches after fixtures or training.
“He was a pleasure to teach, and you could see his potential from that age onwards.”
Hunt’s early promise was polished by some coaches in Dubai with an understanding of what it takes to make reach the top.
Trevor Sinclair and Carlton Palmer, two former England players, were coaching in the city at the time, while Kirk Hilton, a former Manchester United left-back, oversaw Hunt’s development most closely.
Hilton, who is the director of Go Pro Academy in Dubai, said within 30 minutes of first seeing Hunt play as an eight-year-old boy he believed he had the ability to make the professional game.
“He was training with our Under 10s and straight away was running the show,” Hilton said. “I said to Carlton, ‘Wow, he is unbelievable.’ He asked how old he was. I said he was only eight. But he was streets ahead.
“Within the first half-an-hour, we saw how good he was. It wasn’t just his technical ability, it was his brain.
“He could move the ball in one or two touches, and could see things that others couldn’t see, even though he was playing three years up. And he was tiny.”
Hunt was grateful for the advice he got to help him from Dubai to the pro game.
“As I got older, there were a lot of English coaches out in Dubai who had played the game to a good level before,” Hunt said.
“I was coached by Trevor Sinclair and used to play with his kids. They always used to say to me and my mum and dad, ‘Right, you are going to have to make a decision to move back and play for an academy – don’t leave it too late. If you stay out here, the chance may go.’
“When I was 13, me and my mum decided to move back. I went for a six-week trial with Everton, and have been there since.”
Departing Dubai as a young teenager and starting out again in Liverpool was tough, but he said football helped him settle.
“I loved living out in Dubai and school was really enjoyable,” he said. “I definitely missed it when I moved back. It was a bit of a shock.
“It was difficult moving away, especially leaving my dad and my brother there, as I am very close to them.
“I also had a lot of close friends in Dubai, then when I came back to Liverpool I didn’t know anyone. It was a new school, and it was difficult to adjust to, but it was OK in the end.
“At school, coming in and saying that you play for Everton, everyone is your friend. It made it easier, for sure.”
Hunt had to forego a trip back to Dubai the summer as he attempted to settled into his new surroundings with Fleetwood, who start their League 2 campaign against Grimsby Town on Saturday.
Despite that, though, he regularly returns to the city. His deep affinity with the country is evidenced in the fact he now has a UAE passport, and hopes to represent the national team.
He is eligible for the World Cup Qualifiers in September, against Qatar and Iran. Whether that is too soon for him is yet to be seen, but he said he would be thrilled if the call came.
“It is exciting but I won’t know too much about how it feels until I go and do it,” he said of the prospect of playing for the national team.
“I would be happy and excited to represent the UAE because it feels like home to me in lots of ways.”
