Former Kitchee and Hong Kong NT forward Sandro has joined PSM Makassar of Indonesia. He is the third HK player to play in Indonesia. Gerard Ambassa Guy was the first and Lam Hock-Hei was the second. Julius Akosah also played in Indonesia, but he never got HK passport so I guess that's why he does not count. He did play Guangdong-HK Cup though.
I will also go for Gary White. Leading Chinese Taipei to beat Bahrain 2-1 is some amazing achievement. Hong Kong is simply unable to play against West Asia opponents.
https://scmp.com/sport/hong-kong/ar...ong-kong-fa-how-has-ceo-performed-role-he-was A good detailed account of Mark Sutcliffe's achievements as HKFA CEO. I have to say he did achieve a lot for youth football and women's football, as well as finally getting the TKO football training ground built.
I really hope Kitchee makes it to ACL group stage... I think both Kitchee and Tai Po will be disappointed to have to play against each other in the AFC Cup. Anyway Tai Po said they want to make it to the semi-final stage of AFC Cup. Well, all they have to do is win the group. It is not easy if 4.25 and Kitchee are in it, but it is not like it will be an earth-shattering achievement either.
To be honest, now that I think of what he had achieved so far, I would think Gary White would be a suitable choice for Hong Kong and it is like you said, he was able to turn the deficit against Bahrain 2-1 in which I consider this to be one of the greatest comebacks I have ever seen from the Chinese Taipei National Football Team. Anyways, with the way things are escalating within the CTFA, it would be no surprise if Gary is seeking opportunities elsewhere if the political situation is not resolved with Hong Kong being one of them. Gary White also contributed to recruiting players with national heritage or who are playing abroad in oversea leagues to the national team in which he drafted in the likes of Will DONKIN of the Crystal Palace Youth Team (England), Timothy CHOW of St. Mirren (Scotland) as well as Karl JOSEFSSON of Djurgardens IF (Sweden) to represent Chinese Taipei. Let's say if Gary White is named as the new head coach of Hong Kong, which players from abroad or of national heritage would he call up to the team?
I think Gary White will sign. First of all HKFA is paying him double what CTFA is paying him. Secondly I think Gary White will love Hong Kong much more than Taiwan, given the British connection. He can easily make many friends here and his family will be more comfortable. I am led to believe he has a team of scouts working with him and on past records they seem very familiar with all levels of the game in the UK. He does need observers in Europe to keep an eye on Tsun Dai and Tommy Chuck. Hopefully he can unearth more talents over there. But most importantly he needs to get the local players in shape. He will be the first coach to have the benefits of TKO Training Ground and he'll have no excuse.
They have to qualify for the group stage first, assuming Kitchee doesn't qualify for the ACL group stage. If Tai Po were to fail, I think they could realistically lose Wong Wai to a CSL or CLO club before the end of the year. I just hope that they've used some of their expanded budget to re-sign him to a multi-year deal in order to leverage a higher transfer fee when, not if, he leaves. Are the Taiwanese nationality laws like Hong Kong's? If they're anywhere as restrictive as Hong Kong's then I can't see him discovering anyone who we haven't heard of already. There are footballers out there who have ties to Hong Kong but either don't have or are not eligible for Hong Kong passports that I think he may monitor. At best he can convince them to apply for passports or come to Hong Kong and see if they want to play for a club here. I'm thinking in particular of Antoine Viterale, Javen Siu and Ryo Fujii who we have discussed at some point or another in this thread.
That just means beating Taiwan, Mongolia, North Korea, Guam or Macau clubs. If Tai Po cannot do that when they have a HK$18m budget then they probably should not bother. None of those clubs have half what Tai Po have financially. Benfica Macau beat that other North Korean side Hwaepul home and away. I can't see Tai Po losing a single AFC Cup preliminary match and I can see why Kitchee are so determined to break into the ACL group stage, the current AFC Cup format is a joke for East Asia clubs.
Given Tai Po has managed to retain Sartori and Wong Wai, and added pieces such as Philip Chan, I have pretty good confidence in them in beating their regional peers. Harry Sawyer is a pretty unknown quantity but with a 6'5 frame he could probably bully the other sides.
HKFA Mark Sutcliffe and Canny Leung said they have sent an offer to their preferred candidate for the Hong Kong NT manager post. They are now awaiting his/her reply to accept or reject the offer. They are not going to name the candidate and Mark Sutcliffe said he was very disappointed that the names leaked. Josep Gombau is going to be Delhi Dynamo's new coach so he can be ruled out.
That's a shame that they couldn't get Josep Gombau, but I do wish him all the best at his new coaching role with Delhi Dynamo. Anyways, I'm really hoping that the HKFA made the right choice on who they pick as Kim Pan Gon's successor in which I personally now hope its Gary White.
Toby Philip Down as signed for Tai Po FC. He was a former player of Sham Shui Po AA when Lee Chi-Kin was its coach. Toby has now graduated from Concordia University in USA and will be given the chance to play under Lee again.
Jean-Jacques Kilama signed with Tai Po FC. He said last season he joined mid-season with HK Pegasus and he missed pre-season training so he was never fully fit. This time he will join Tai Po's pre-season training and should be much better for his condition. Well, let's see what happens.
R&F (HK) FC are revealing their signings one by one. Paulinho is revealed today. But we already know that Lo Kwan-Yee, Lam Zhi-Gin, Sean Tse, Lo Kong-Wai, Bai He, Yuen Chun-Sing etc have joined the club. They will be a real force to be reckoned with this season. R&F (HK) FC will go to Thailand for pre-season training next Monday. They want to achieve top 3 result in HKPL this season.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45131782 Tsun Dai has signed with League One club Oxford United. Hope he gets some decent playing opportunities.
FT: Lao Vs Hong Kong - 1-3 Hong Kong off to a winning start in the men's football tournament at the Asian Games. A goal from CHENG Chin-Lung and two goals from TAN Chun-Lok was enough to give Hong Kong their first three points within their group.
It was not a very good performance. In fact Laos nearly equalized when the score was 2-1. Coach Kwok was not pleased, especially after seeing Palestine and Chinese Taipei drew 0-0. He thinks both Palestine and Chinese Taipei performed at a higher level than HK did.
The full list of R&F FC's players and coaches. Godfred Karikari is missing. I wonder where he's gone.
Happy Valley have signed Mahir Karic, a Bosnian midfielder. They have also signed Igor Miovic from Serbia. Happy Valley are competing in the Greater Bay Area Cup which is for amateur clubs in the Pearl River Delta. They are also going to compete in the Hong Kong First Division League with the aim of gaining promotion to the HK Premier League in 2019-20.
Under the HK Jockey Club Youth Soccer Academy scheme, Man Utd U16 are invited to visit Hong Kong for a week. Hong Kong U17 1-6 Man Utd U16 Man Utd U16 played HK U17 in a friendly and won 6-1. HKU17 simply cannot defend against their speedy left winger, who won the Man of the Match honour. To be honest I feel Man Utd gets more out of the visit than the Hong Kong players. So I don't understand why HKJC pays so much money to Man Utd to organize this thing. I am sure it would be a lot more beneficial for the Hong Kong youths to go and visit a foreign country.
As things stand at the moment, Hong Kong are having a dominant first half against Chinese Taipei in the men's football tournament as they currently lead by 4 goals courtesy of a TAN Chun-Lok and Jordi TARRES double.
Indonesia 1-2 Palestine That's a surprise result and put Palestine in pole position to become the group winner. It was a good thing coach Kwok subsitituted all three over-age players in the second half of the Chinese Taipei game. We need them to be fit against Palestine tomorrow.