Northern District head coach Chan Chi-Hong is to join KC Southern District for 2026-27 season. He is moving from the top end of Hong Kong to the bottom end geographically. It is a little sad that the team that he built up will be taken over by someone else. But KC Southern District sorely needs a better coach. Also, HKFC has been confirmed to be retained by HKFA in the HKPL. Since Supreme FC will accept promotion to HKPL, therefore HKPL will have 11 clubs next season. I guess that means Wofoo FC will not accept promotion.
Having watched the HKFA Footballer of the Year Awards, I'm not too surprised that Asier Illaramendi took the top prize. Although it did took time for him to settle during the early stages, he eventually thrived. As for the Young Player of the Year Award, whilst I can totally understand Jason Kam Chi Kin taking one of the places, I'm not entirely sure about Lee Lok Him considering that I felt Jay Haddow and Cai McGunnigle should had taken the second spot way ahead of Lee. In other news, it seems that the HKFA have postponed their head coach announcement which was scheduled for tomorrow in which I generally do not believe that Losada had gotten the permanent position. In addition, a 29-man squad was named in preparation for the men's 2026 Asian Games football event with four over aged players which is comprised of Li Ngai Hoi, Poon Pui Hin, Jesse Yu Joy Yin and Helio Goncalves. Although Jeremy Tsang Lok To is named, I wonder what happened to Joshua Lee Baker who was initally confirmed to take part in the training camp as announced by Northwood Soccer's instagram unless he is more focused on being part of the U20 training camp instead.
Helio is one of the more experienced naturalised players having won 38 international senior caps and considering that he is already at a stage where he could potentially call time on his footballing career, this will be his last opportunity to play and wear the HK jersey if he is selected. Anyways here is the 29 man list called up for the local training session including the over aged players:
Kitchee have confirmed the departures of Matheus Dantas, Martin Merquelanz and Leandro Martinez. There is speculation that the club have signed a new CB who recently left a HKPL club.
Well, it has been confirmed that interim head coach Roberto Losada has been offered the permanent position beating 300 other candidates who had applied for the role. I'm not entirely too optimistic about this as even though he is someone who knows how to bring in young players in to the fold and sure he is someone who is familiar with the domestic scenes in Hong Kong football, but his international pedigree and whether he is capable of motivating, providing the right tactics is still remains a question mark especially with his recent interim results. Whilst it will possibly take a while for further foreign players to achieve naturalisation (with some already hoping or have plans to represent HKNT in the future), I don't think this is something Roberto should ignore as they had already continuously proven their worth and can be beneficial to the national team.
Full Time: Hong Kong Vs Mongolia - 2:0 Even though the HKNT took the win at home to give Roberto Losada's first win in charge, it wasn't the most convincing of all performances against a side that the national team had faced numerous times in the past. Juninho gave Hong Kong the early lead after a scuffle amongst the Mongolian defense in which the ball found its path towards him in which he comfortably scored. In the latter stages of the second half, Ng Yu Hei scored the second through a free kick in a rather questionable yet controversial fashion to whether the ball had crossed the line or not. Here is the goal in question: 11 years ago there was another very famous goalline controversy involving HK. Fortunately, HK got the rub of the green on both occasions. #HKfootball pic.twitter.com/6KF6gwE9XF— Football in Hong Kong (@offsideHK) June 5, 2026 Despite the win, it wasn't the most convincing in terms of all performances in which there were times that the tactics did not quite land and players struggled in terms of creativity and motivation. Their next fixture on Tuesday against Cambodia away might be a challenge for Losada.
The team will be without Juninho and Shinichi Chan for the Cambodia away fixture. Whilst Kyle Lau Ka Kiu had been called up as Juninho's replacement whilst no replacement has been named for Shinichi Chan who picked up an injury during the national team's win against Mongolia a few days ago. I've been seeing some fans not very keen on Losada's appointment with some already posting "Chino Out" on social media. I guess this may have something to with his tenure with Eastern SC's stench from the 2025/26 season and the poor run of results during the AFC Champions League 2 group stage especially with the nine goal thrashing by Nam Dinh. Whilst I do understand that he wants to inject in youth in to the national fold which there is nothing wrong with that approach, but I do think it is important to ensure that they are good enough and had shown any potential to come in to the squad which will possibly take many years for them to build up. In addition, Losada should consider looking into players not just within the domestic league, but recruit and scout any local born or diaspora born players overseas who can help bolster the national team.
I am not convinced Roberto Losada is a good choice. That 9-0 thrashing by Nam Dinh really was bad. Those Eastern players had no fight and Losada could do nothing about it. The 2-0 win over Mongolia did not impress. The players were not on the same wavelength. It was like they were playing at different speeds. The game was so slow yet they could not play with each other. It only got a little better when Merkies, Ng Yu-Hei and Sun Ming-Him came on.
For those who still care, former heavy weight South China lost the junior FA Cup to Tung Sing on penalties after drawing 1-1 in regular time.
For me, it has nothing to do with domestic performance. If you hire a local coach, yes, you'll get someone who knows the ins and outs of the local game, but I don't see that as an asset. In fact, I see it as a negative. In Chinese, we have a saying: 「塘水滾塘魚」. It refers to a closed market where people only do business among themselves, resulting in limited growth and profit potential. A local coach is more likely to be constrained by what is considered possible within the existing system. A foreign coach, ideally, brings fresh ideas, best practices, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. That's not to say Chino won't succeed. But for him to do so, he will need to succeed in spite of the system he has been living and working in for the past 15 years. People keep saying that, but it's not as if they haven't tried. The problem is that the same roadblocks remain. Hong Kong and China's nationality laws are very strict. In an ideal world, I would love to see every player listed in Categories 2 and 5 become part of the Hong Kong player pool. But we don't live in an ideal world.
What an embarrassing performance by the national team. Not only does it show that Losada is out of his depth in this role, but how players on the national team have either stagnated or regressed. Only 2 shots compared to Cambodia's 15 is horrific.
That was possibly one of the team's worst performances to date especially given the fact that this is against a national team that the HKNT had a proud win record against, but handed them their first win in over 55 years. I don't even know if Roberto Losada had any clue to what he was doing with his strategy and tactics and his team were simply out-fought, out-thought, out-battled and fell completely hopeless for the entire 90 minutes of the game, not even able to register a single shot on target. Whilst the national team were only fortunate enough to scrape a result against Mongolia who are after all a weak AFC national team, I keep on asking myself can the they get results against the likes Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia or even Singapore? At this stage, I really don't think they can, not under Losada. It also really begs to question about the entire application process as well as Eric Fok and Charles Cheung's decision to give Losada the permanent job ahead of other 300 candidates who were interviewed for the job?
I gave up watching the match mid-way through the second half. If Losada thought the young players were good, then why didn't he start with them? We played horrifyingly in the first half. I still don't understand how a coach who lost ACL2 match 0-7 at home to Ratchaburi, 0-5 at home to Gamba Osaka and 0-9 away to Nam Dinh, can be even considered for the HKNT coach job. Losada is out of his depth. He should have worked on HKFA's youth programme first.
Hong Kong had 2 shots (0 on target). Cambodia had 15 shots (5 on target - 2 goals). Hong Kong with 𝒛𝒆𝒓𝒐 shots on target tonight, outscored 1.79 - 0.65 on xG. Dire stuff. pic.twitter.com/6CopYN0wwn— Football in Hong Kong (@offsideHK) June 9, 2026
There was a video in which angry fans at the stands arguing with Roberto Losada in which he responded back by saying, "What do you want me to do?" and telling fans to be patient that it will take more time for these young players to adjust in the national team whilst apologising at the same time. In addition, Roberto stated: "The young players with less experience will inevitably make mistakes, which is normal, but we must support them. They need time to adapt to and understand the team's tactics. We are currently facing a difficult time, and we must work together and look to the future, rather than just focusing on the present." Look, I do feel that Roberto Losada is a nice person, but after his run as interim head coach and being surprisingly appointed on a permanent basis I really think the HKFA, Eric Fok and Charles Cheung made a huge mistake in bringing him in to the national team.
I do "understand" what the HKFA was trying to accomplish with appointing Losada to a degree, even if I don't agree with the decision. The HKFA probably felt that hiring another "win-now" coach would achieve the same sub-par results, and that the current national team reached their ceiling. Westwood's teams heavily featured veterans past their physical peaks (Fernando, Stefan, Bleda). The players approaching their 30s (Tan Chun Lok, Matt Orr) are unlikely to get significantly better at this point. Losada's responsibility probably lies more in integrating the youth talent into the national team. Identify players who have an international future and prepare them for the next manager. And Losada does have a track record with youth players (Ng Yu Hei, Ma Hei Wai) and knows the Hong Kong system better than other coaches that applied. And yes, the result against Cambodia was atrocious. You would think a line up of 8 out of 11 players playing in the Chinese Super League/First Division would be up to the task. And Losada failed to bring about a more "dynamic" style of football. But don't forget that Hong Kong also uninspiringly drew with Cambodia just 6 months ago with Westwood. Losada was probably the HKFA's cheapest and perhaps most realistic option was this job. I can only assume the FA didn't want to spend a lot on a manager for a rebuild phase. Unfortunately it looks like a rough 4 years until the national team might see progress.
There is current speculation from Joga.Bonito 7's instagram that current U23 head coach Darren Arnott is set to be named as the new coach of Hong Kong Football Club who were managed to be retained for the next HKPL season despite finishing bottom that could had got themselves relegated. In an interview with Offside.hk, whilst Cai McGunnigle still holds intentions on representing Scotland, he is still open to representing Hong Kong: "It’s something I obviously wouldn’t knock down the chance of playing for Hong Kong because it is an unbelievable establishment.” “I’ve grown up here in Hong Kong, and I’ve got so much love for it. I think there’s truly no place like Hong Kong. I’m eligible to obtain a Hong Kong passport.” There are current reports and speculation that McGunnigle has attracted interest from Leeds United, West Ham and Dutch club AZ Alkmaar. Also, Jay Haddow and Sohgo Ichikawa will be joining the U23 training camp along with Roberto Losada in preparation for the upcoming 2026 Asian Games football event.
Despite the reports of getting interest from Leeds United, West Ham and AZ Alkmaar, Cai McGunnigle is set to remain in Hong Kong for the the 2026/27 season although it is not known if he will remain with Hong Kong Football Club considering that the club got a repreive from relegation. Also Chung Wai Keung revealed that he is departing from Tai Po, hoping to seek for a new challenge.
If HKFC does avoid relegation, I think Cai McGunnigle will stay with them for one more season, and then re-evaluate his professional options after turning 18. Joining a team's youth ranks at age 17 gives a very limited amount of time to impress before a decision has to be made about a professional contract. Even though he has his heart set on Scotland, understandably, I'm sure we're all hoping that Cai eventually represents Hong Kong. Outside of Matt Orr, who turns 30 next year, the striker options are currently Kyle Lau Ka Kiu, Michael Udebuluzor, and Matthew Slattery.
Massive issues with all 3. Kyle Lau doesn't seem focused on football and seems to be ready for full time study instead / thinking of a non-sporting career? Michael U cannot seem to find a club. And Matt Slattery is not a real striker.