Former North Korea manager Jorn Andersen tipped to lead Hong Kong football team
- Hong Kong Football Association has been looking for new coach after deciding not to extend Mixu Paatelainen’s contract in June
- Finn’s replacement to lead Hong Kong in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifying campaign set to kick off in February
The Hong Kong Football Association has targeted former North Korea manager Jorn Andersen to lead the representative team to next year’s 2023 Asian Cup qualification campaign.
The FA remains tight-lipped on who will succeed Finn Mixu Paatelainen, who left the Hong Kong team in June after the 2022 Fifa World Cup Asian zone qualifiers second round match against Bahrain – a 4-0 defeat – in June.
The search began for a new manager after deciding not to extend Paatelainen’s two-year contract and it is believed that 58-year-old Andersen, a former Norway international who coached the North Korean side from 2016-2018, is top of the shortlist of potential coaches who could lead Hong Kong.
Andersen is no stranger to Hong Kong, having led the North Koreans to a 1-1 draw with Hong Kong in an Asian Cup qualifier in 2017.
He left North Korea in 2018 after becoming the first foreign coach of the hermit country since the early 1990s and was soon appointed head coach of K-League side Incheon of South Korea.
