Ajax of Asia? Fallen Hong Kong giants Kitchee model rebuild on European royalty
- Forward Poon Pui-hin in talks over mainland switch, but loan move being held up by ‘procedural problem’
Hong Kong football’s fallen giants Kitchee are to refocus on becoming the “Ajax of Asia”, after appointing Edgar Cardoso as head coach to lead a new-look, bright, young team.
Club president Ken K Ng has also hit back at accusations he strung along some of the club’s former stars by delaying telling them they were no longer wanted, saying he feared they would “give up” if they knew before the end of the season.
Champions in the previous three completed seasons, Kitchee slumped to fourth in 2023-24. They blew two late-season opportunities for cup success, as an acrimonious campaign spectacularly unravelled. Ng promptly decided to dispense with a longstanding model of relying on ageing imports, in favour of trusting young, predominantly homegrown, talent.
He said Cardoso, previously the Kitchee academy’s director of elite football, “fits the profile” for the club’s renewed model.
A number of players were shown the door last month, with some privately relating disappointment over being kept waiting for news about their fates.
“If I tell a player I am not going to keep them, they will give up,” Ng said. “At the end of April, we were chasing every trophy, at the end of May, we’d lost all of them.
“Those two months were open for the players to show me they were not too old, that they’re still very good. They showed me otherwise. I don’t feel we were ruthless, we acted according to results.
“You cannot blame the club. We put the facilities together, so [players] have the best support. If the combination [of players] doesn’t work, we have to go with something else.”
Ng reiterated a desire, originally expressed in 2020, for Kitchee to imitate Ajax’s model of “developing good young players, who can go to other leagues”.
He will appoint a new technical director, and an “interesting” coaching team to support Cardoso.
Kim Dong-jin, who had been interim head coach, will manage Kitchee’s under-22s.
Kitchee have signed Leon Jones, the 26-year-old former Eastern defender, and midfielder Jordan Lam Lok-kan, 25, from North District.
According to Ng, Kitchee will add one goalkeeper, two defenders, and three attacking players. One of those forwards is Portuguese Luis Machado, 31, who will join from Radomiak Radom in Poland’s top division. At least one of the impending arrivals was with Kitchee as a youth player.
“I’m reasonably confident that we’re going to make a mark,” Ng said.
A loan move to mainland China for forward Poon Pui-hin, meanwhile, is being held up by a “procedural problem”.
Ng said being “sentimental” over previous years “caught up with us .. and the players”.
“We were the oldest team in the Asian Champions League … that tells you something,” he said.
Portuguese Cardoso unofficially took over for the closing four matches of last season, with Kim relegated to a peripheral role. Kitchee lost three of those games.
Ng said the 41-year-old, who formerly worked as academy manager at Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, was “one of the most intelligent coaches” he had encountered.
“We looked at 30 to 40 players, to come up with the six [we are signing],” Ng said. “We have technical and psychological analysis of every one of them. The whole club is running much more on a knowledge-based, scientific direction.”
The objective is to promote young talent to select or sell.
Shinichi Chan, 21, last week joined Shanghai Shenhua of the Chinese Super League. The 19-year-old Sohgo Ichikawa, who spent 2023-24 on loan with Southern, is set for a trial in Spain, while four Kitchee under-18s are currently at a camp in Barcelona, arranged by the club’s former manager, Josep Gombau.
Ng dismissed fears over the local league’s sustainability, despite both Sham Shui Po and RCFC opting to self-relegate. “They are not the strongest clubs,” he said. “The most important thing is the top clubs are competitive and fighting for the title.
“Last season, the top clubs were competitive, except Kitchee.”
