Hong Kong boss Andersen turns to Brazilian striker Camargo to help end side’s goal drought
- Lee Man’s Everton Camargo named in squad for friendlies against Cambodia and Brunei days after obtaining Hong Kong passport
- Andersen’s side have not scored a goal since they beat Myanmar 2-0 last year
Days after being handed his Hong Kong passport, prolific striker Everton Camargo has been named in Jorn Andersen’s Hong Kong squad for international friendlies against Cambodia and Brunei.
Andersen will be hoping the 32-year-old Brazilian can solve his shot-shy team’s goal-scoring woes, with Hong Kong having failed to hit the back of the net since September last year.
Hong Kong beat Cambodia 3-0 in the Asian Cup qualifiers in India in June last year, before another 2-0 win over Myanmar in a friendly played behind closed doors at Mong Kok Stadium three months later.
But since then, Andersen’s side has failed to score in the next five games, including a 1-1 draw against Singapore at Mong Kok in March, where the visitors’ Lionel Tan scored at both ends.
The Hong Kong boss is hoping that games away in Phnom Penh on Thursday and at home to Brunei four days later will kick-start the attack ahead of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, which begin next month with a two-leg tie against Bhutan next month.
The winners of that will progress to the Asian zone group stage qualifiers against Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
For Lee Man striker Camargo, who has scored 70 goals in the city’s domestic matches since his arrival in 2015, it’s a dream come true.
“I want to help the team and if the chance comes, I want to score but still the most important thing is to help the team win,” he said.
“I am quite happy with my form so far this season although we only played one game in the league and one game in the Champions League qualifiers. We’ll see.”
After scoring 17 times last season, Camargo has scored in both games this campaign, and Andersen said he was delighted to have the striker in his squad.
“I am very happy to have Everton in the squad. We need players who can score some goals,” the coach said.
Andersen has kept most of his players from his previous squad for the friendlies, although centre half Vas Nunez, who plays for Dalian Professional in the China Super League, is notable by his absence.
In response, Andersen has recalled three Kitchee defenders, Andrew Russell, Fernando Pedreira and Shinichi Chan who were not in the squad for the games against Vietnam and Thailand in June.
Chan, 20, has been hailed the star of the future. He finished his loan spell with Real Unión in the lower divisions of Spain and returned to Hong Kong in the summer.
Champions Kitchee still have the most number of players in the squad, with nine of them in the group, including goalkeeper Paulo Argolo, defender Helio Goncalves, midfielders Huang Yang and Tan Chun-lok and forwards Poon Pui-hin and Law Tsz-chun.
Law was one of the two goalscorers for Hong Kong against Myanmar, while the other, Sun Ming-him of Eastern, also keeps his position this time, despite the addition of Camargo.
While Nunez is missing, the three other players that ply their trade in China – Leung Nok-hang of Zhejiang, Yue Tze-nam of Meizhou Hakka, and Matthew Orr of Guangxi Pingguo Haliao – have been picked.
