Player #959 for Aston Villa, Kaine Kesler Hayden, has played as a right back for the club since the 2019-20 season.

Kesler Hayden was born on 25 May 2003.

Kesler Hayden was promoted to the first team squad by Dean Smith during the 2019-20 season and made his debut appearance in the Villa squad at the age of 17 on Thursday, 16 July 2020 in the 1-1 Premier League draw with Everton.

Kesler Hayden remained an unused substitute in that fixture before making his first team debut in the 2020-21 season aged 20 in the 1-4 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool on Friday, 8 January 2021.

Kesler Hayden was part of the youngest ever team to ever take the field for Villa in a professional game - aged 18.8 years on average - after the first team squad was forced into isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic which had seen a raft of players and staff testing positive for the virus in the week preceding the game.

Kesler Hayden was also one of 16 debutants in the game - the most in a single game in Villa’s history and was also part of the starting XI made up of 11 debutants, the first time this had happened since Villa’s first professional fixture - also in the FA Cup - on Saturday, 13 December 1879 against Stafford Road.

Kesler Hayden showed versatility well beyond his years on his Villa debut, starting on the right of midfield before finishing the game in his more familiar right-back position. Having spent the evening working up and down the flank the likes of James Milner, Takumi Minamino and Sadio Mane couldn’t contain the athletic teenager as his commitment came to the fore. Such was the acclaim for Hayden’s performance that he was awarded man of the match by Sky Sports.

The Birmingham Mail described Kesler Hayden’s debut thus:

“Hayden has tasted first-team involvement before after making the bench at Everton during Project Restart. He’s highly thought of at Villa and played on the right of midfield. The England under-19 right-back was great and forced the issue whenever he got forward to put Liverpool left-back and Villa hero James Milner under pressure.”

Following regular Under 23 captain Dominic Revan’s loan move to Weymouth FC, Mark Delaney handed Kesler Hayden the captaincy of the team with Delaney revealing:

“We spoke before I gave it to him because it’s not just one of those items you give to anybody in my opinion. You need to make sure that you give it to somebody who is going to lead by example, somebody who is going to lead a team and somebody who is going to do things right day in, day out.

“I feel that we’ve picked the right person for that. He’s shown in his performances that he’s taken that on himself.

“It just gives him that extra responsibility. He’s fully aware that he needs to be the first person into training, he needs to be the last one away from training and he needs to be the one that works the hardest.

“If he does that then players will want to follow that and it can only be good for the group if players get to the levels that we think Kaine can get to.”

On 2 August 2021 it was announced the Kesler Hayden, 18, would join League Two side Swindon Town on a season-long loan deal.

Villa however retained an option to recall Kesler Hayden in the January 2022 transfer window with his first team progression in mind.