Kitchee updates and international duty, but no manager update yet

Photo by Santiago/offside

By Adam O'Domhnaill

The club season may be over, but over the last week we've seen a historic win for the senior Hong Kong team, wins at youth level for our younger players, and strong rumours of a change of home ground for the 2025-26 season.

The big Kitchee news

We are likely to be evicted from Mong Kok Stadium for next season, although we are awaiting official confirmation. Tseung Kwan O Stadium is undergoing season-long maintenance works, and as a result Lee Man will have the option to choose their new venue (almost definitely choosing Mong Kok), due to finishing above us in the league, as did Eastern, who will stay at MK too. Until recently, this was HKPL policy, resulting in regular changes of home grounds season after season, before it was decided teams should stay in one place to try and build a local fanbase. AFC regulations state more than two teams cannot share a home ground for access to continental competition, and so we would be the first tenants of Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground. We'll keep our page name the same despite the brief exodus.

Hong Kong news

Photo by Santiago/offside

Juninho scored against Manchester United for Hong Kong, in a game where Leon Jones and Ngan Cheuk-pan also started, alongside Fernando who captained the side. Tan Chun-lok and Helio came off the bench. Sixteen year old goalkeeper Lucas Cheung was called up late to the side as cover but did not get on, as three second half goals for Manchester United handed them a 3-1 win.

Hong Kong 0 Nepal 0- Juninho, Ngan Cheuk-pan, Leon Jones (and the recently departed Fernando) all started, with Tan Chun-lok coming off the bench in a pretty drab affair that saw a lot of fans questioning manager Ashley Westwood's tactical selections.

Photo by Santiago/offside

Hong Kong 1 India 0- Juninho, Tan Chun-lok and Leon Jones started, with Ngan Cheuk-pan coming off the bench. In front of forty two thousand fans (the second highest Hong Kong home attendance of all time), former Kitchee academy striker Michael Udebuluzor was taken out in stoppage time, and Southern striker Stefan Pereira scored to send the crowd wild. Safe to say the 'Westwood Out' brigade are pretty quiet now.

The total attendance of the Hong Kong Premier League last season was just over seventy thousand, so we'd encourage all our readers to send this article to any friends or family that attended last night (or have a passing interest in football), as we'd love to see HKPL games hitting a thousand fans with much more regularity. Out of 108 games, attendances only broke 1000 on twenty one occasions, with four of these being Kitchee home games, and a further three being away games. 

Tuscany (credit HKFA)

Chen Ngo-hin, Matthew Slattery and Chan Shing-chun and Tom Yeung Cheuk-kwan travelled with HKU23 to Thailand to play friendlies with Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. Slattery and Yeung started the Thailand game, with both scoring in the first half to help Hong Kong into a 3-0 lead which was pegged back to 3-2 by full time. Chan Shing-chun and Chen Ngo-hin both came off the bench in the second half. The friendly against the UAE was behind closed doors with limited information available, other than Hong Kong lost 5-0.

Tuscany Shek was an unused substitute as HK U20s lost on penalties to a Hubei U18 side in the semi finals of a charity competition held at Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground, but he started the third placed playoff against Malaga U19, saving two penalties in the shoot out as Hong Kong won after a 2-2 draw.

Manager news

Photo by Scoop

Nothing major to report in this regard, but a host of names have popped up on social media. Edgar Cardoso and assistant Stefano Sousa left the club, but other assistant Fernando Recio was retained. It is purely fan speculation who comes next. Names mentioned include Jordi Tarres (current technical director) and Gary White (former Hong Kong manager), although both of these seem very unlikely given previous comments by chairman Ken Ng. Current Aston Villa under 21s and former Kitchee boss Josep Gombau has been linked, along with Carles Anton, a former Hong Kong youth coach. Both have experience working in Hong Kong football, which was a criticism levelled at Edgar Cardoso at times. More left-field names thrown into the mix (again, purely by fans) are former Kitchee players Diego Forlan and Matt Smith, but neither have great managerial track records and so appointing either seems unlikely. We expect more concrete rumours and an eventual appointment after the international break, with preseason starting at the start of July.

Transfer speculation and confirmation

Ins

Photo by Scoop

As has been discussed in previous months, Kendy and Callum Beattie are set to join Kitchee from North District and Hong Kong Football Club respectively, with the latter waiting on his Hong Kong passport (similar to current player Jay Haddow) in order to class as a local player next campaign. Pong Cheuk-hei, also known as Bear, the goalkeeper for North District has been linked again- the club attempted to sign him last summer, before opting for Fynn Talley. The most surprising transfer link saw rumours of Leung Nok-hang (Sailo) potentially joining us from Meizhou Hakka in the Chinese Super League. While this signing would be a big statement of intent from the club, it has been debunked on Weibo, and makes little logistical sense- taking a massive pay cut to play for a club not in continental competition, unless other factors are in play. It is likely that any incoming foreign players from abroad will not be signed until a new coaching team is in place, with the new manager likely to bring some of his own backroom team too.

Outs

Photo by Scoop

At the start of June, Kitchee announced the departures of Welthon, Luis Machado, Bae Jae-woo, Aaron Rey, Diego Bardanca, Fynn Talley and Sherzod Temirov, on the expiration of their contracts. None of these really came as a shock based on recent events. Club captain Helio and vice captain Fernando have also both left after making over 400 Kitchee appearances between them, with the latter almost certainly going to Tai Po. After an underwhelming campaign, where he played less than fifteen percent of possible minutes, forward Poon Pui-hin continues to have admirers in the Chinese football leagues, with Changchun Yatai of the Chinese Super League the latest link. 

And finally congratulations to Kitchee Women who completed a domestic double with victory in the FA Cup on Sunday. Former Kitchee manager Alex Chu was in the dugout, as was Wang Zhenpeng as goalkeeping coach, as Kitchee won 2-0.

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Santiago's photos can be found on the pages for Offside.hk, an English language website for Hong Kong football news. Go and follow them if you don't already Instagram Facebook Twitter