Jayden Nguyen remembers the moment he became hooked on Australian rules football.
He was around eight years old, and his friends were playing “king of the pack” on the school oval.
“I took a massive speccy on one of the boys, and he just said to me, ‘Come down to the local footy club, see how you like it’,” Nguyen said.
“From that day I didn’t look back.”
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Nguyen is the first player of Vietnamese heritage to play Aussie rules at the highest level.
He made his debut for Essendon in the Australian Football League (AFL) toward the end of the 2025 season and kept his spot in the team, playing five games.
He was one of 14 debutants used last season as injuries forced coach Brad Scott to turn to teenagers. Now, after an intense off-season, Nguyen is ready to take his game to the next level.
But apart from developing as a footballer, the confident 19-year-old is maturing as a pioneer and ambassador for Asian representation in Australia’s indigenous football code.
The AFL has appointed him as one of four cultural diversity ambassadors, as it seeks to expand the sport’s supporter base within migrant groups in Australia and develop the game in Asia.
A pathway for Asian footballers
Nguyen is acutely aware of the responsibility.
“It’s obviously humbling and a great opportunity,” he told ABC Asia during a break in pre-season training.
“Now I want to try to build a pathway for many other Asian athletes to follow.
“There were many kids texting me … [who] looked up to me. I was in that position, so I want to give back to these kids and hopefully, you know, see them at the top level as well.”
Asian representation at the elite level of AFL is still rare.
Nguyen follows Lin Jong, who played 65 games for the Western Bulldogs over 10 seasons before retiring in 2021. Jong’s mother was born in Taiwan, and his father is from East Timor.
Lin Jong in action for the Western Bulldogs in the 2016 VFL grand final where he won the best on ground award in the Bulldogs’ win.(Supplied: Liz Vagg/Western Bulldogs)
“When I was young, I looked up to Lin Jong,” Nguyen said.
“I used to always shoot him Instagram messages and wish him luck.”
The pair eventually met at a training session in Melbourne when Nguyen was on the cusp of being drafted and has since kept in touch.
“He’s been tuning into my journey and showing support and giving me some advice as well,” Nguyen said.
“So he’s someone that I look up to and very grateful that I have a relationship with him.”
The power of family and community
It’s positive relationships with family and the wider Vietnamese community that have nourished Nguyen’s journey to the AFL.
Jayden Nguyen with his family and his jersey before his AFL debut for Essendon against Sydney Swans, August 2025.(Supplied: Essendon Football Club)
When he made his AFL debut, Nguyen, whose father Duc fled post-war Ho Chi Minh City in the 1980s, paid tribute to the Australian Vietnamese community but also described the scenes in the Nguyen household when the news broke.
He’d just woken up from a nap when he got the call from Brad Scott.
“He told me to keep my plans for [the] weekend free because they were about to get a fair bit better,” Nguyen told the Essendon website.
“I told the family as soon as I ran out of the room, and my dad just started running around the house screaming.”
Professional sport isn’t always an obvious career path.
“The Asian stereotype is your parents want you to become a doctor, a dentist, a lawyer … those sorts of jobs,” Nguyen said.
“So sport probably wasn’t, you know, the most traditional pathway. But the support I received from my family was tremendous.
“It’s really showed me that you can really achieve the things in life when you have those people around you.”
That support is something Nguyen hopes to pass on in his role as an AFL cultural diversity ambassador.
“I’m trying my best to support Asian grassroots, local level football and give encouragement and show these kids that it’s possible to be what you want to be,” he said.
“Hopefully, that can look up to me and feel like they belong as well.”
That sense of belonging helped drive the AFL’s expansion of its cultural diversity mission.
“Our vision is for everyone to love and connect with Australia’s game,” AFL game development general manager Rob Auld said.
“With nearly 31 per cent of Australians born overseas, we need to reflect the rich cultural fabric of our nation so that footy can be in every home.”
For love of the game
Nguyen said his Vietnamese culture plays an important part in his pre-game ritual.
He’s incorporated a prayer to his late grandparents, who never got to see him play, into his routine before a match.
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“I really think that shapes my day. And if I can get a prayer in the morning of the game, I feel like I’ll have a lot of luck behind me through my grandparents.”
While luck certainly played a part in Nguyen’s accelerated elevation to the top level, he’s determined to keep things simple.
A combative defender with a sharp turn of speed, he’s where he is because he loves the game.
“Whenever I pick up the footy, I just feel stress-free,” he said.
“There’s no worries in the world. I just feel like a little kid again playing footy.”
And if he can take a big speccy over the pack in front of a packed MCG, then that’s a bonus.
Don’t miss a second of the drama. From the first bounce to the final siren, ABC Australia will bring you all the marks, goals, tackles and action – with live coverage of games every weekend across Asia and the Pacific. Head to ABC Asia for viewing times in your region.