Capped 32 times by England, scoring nine goals, Hateley represented the likes of Rangers, Coventry City, AC Milan and AS Monaco across an illustrious 20-year career as a professional footballer.
Beginning in the youth team at Nottingham Forest, the striker initially faced rejection from Brian Clough, recalling the time he wasn't offered pro terms by the legendary manager as a teenager.
Brian Clough rejection
Speaking to Tribal Football this week on behalf of Premier League betting site BetWright, Hateley said: “I won't tell you what the words were exactly.
"He wasn't in the best of ways at 9 am, so I walked out of the office. Final day of the pre-season, I just left school and phoned my dad, and he just said, "Don't worry."
"He made a phone call to Gordon Milne over at Coventry City, who was the manager there, and they'll have a look at him for two or three days. Over the two or three days, I got a YTS form and signed it in August, and then I signed a pro form on my 17th birthday in November."
After signing a pro contract with Coventry, Hateley then arguably made Clough eat some humble pie later in the season by assisting Mick Ferguson for his winning goal against Forest.
"I played against Brian Clough's team that year as a left winger, and I crossed the ball in for a 1-0 win for Big Mick Ferguson at the far post. I ran right down to him on the seat in the dugout like that. I stood there laughing, not a f****** clue who I was, but it felt good to me anyway.”
Scoring against Brazil
Hateley spent five years at Coventry and played over 90 games in the old First Division before securing a then club-record £190,000 move to Second Division side Portsmouth.
He enjoyed a sensational debut campaign at Fratton Park, scoring 25 goals in all competitions and was rewarded with an England call-up by Bobby Robson.
“Bobby Robson comes running behind me, and he just says that Paul Mariner has pulled up and he said, "You'll be playing tomorrow night, you'll be starting." He said, "Go have a good night's sleep." I looked at him, and Bobby had a twinkle in his eye. Then I went out and scored," he recalled.
Hateley repaid the manager's faith by netting in a friendly fixture against Brazil in the Maracana in June 1984 — still the last English player to score away from home against the five-time World Cup winners — and that clinched him a £1m move to AC Milan in the same month.
“Well, nobody remembers my goal because John Barnes scored the first goal, where he runs around seven people," the current Rangers ambassador continued. "In the modern game, I would get an assist for that because I caught it on my chest and gave it to him on the halfway line. Then I scored the second one, which is the last Englishman to score a winning goal against Brazil. Yours truly.”
Arsene Wenger's faith
Hateley joined Monaco from AC Milan in 1987 for a reported £2m fee. The striker was Arsene Wenger's first signing at the club, and he ranked high in his estimations after firing the French giants to the league title in his first season.
The Englishman then suffered a career-threatening injury after an ankle dislocation kept him out for two years. "Then came a massive injury for me in the quarter-finals of the old European Cup against Galatasaray in Monaco," he recalled.
"That was after my first year, so I played through the summer again, and then just my body got tired, and I put my foot down a divot and a double dislocation of the ankle. That's where the foot just flops around the wrong way. I was out for two years, four operations. I went to the surgeon the next day, and they just said it's like a hand grenade went off in your ankle."
Wenger could have easily offloaded the striker after his torrid time with injuries, but the Frenchman offered Hateley a five-year contract upon his return and urged him to be a mentor for a young George Weah.
"What Wenger said to me, as soon as I got back that week, he gave me a brand new five-year contract," he revealed. "He bought George Weah in as a 16 or 17-year-old young lad, and he just said, "I want you to bring him on and make him like you."
Erling Haaland comparison
One of the most successful English strikers to play abroad, Hateley has received plenty of comparisons to current players in the modern game, and when asked who his attributes are most similar to, he said Manchester City's goal machine, Erling Haaland.
"I get this a lot. People try and say, especially the players that know me, like (Erling) Haaland," Hateley explained. "He's good in the air, he's powerful, he runs behind, he's strong. I would say probably a little bit more aggressive than Haaland, but he is a goal scorer.
“I was a goal creator as a nine. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind scoring goals, but I loved to create. That's why I had such a great partnership with Ally McCoist.”