Juventus link will see Kowloon City send talented Hong Kong footballers to Italy
Club offer ‘clear pathway’ for local stars to reach the big time, in partnership with two-time European champions
Innovative football club Kowloon City have enlisted expertise from Italian giants Juventus in their bid to develop Hong Kong talent capable of shining in Europe’s big leagues.
The district club, who were promoted to the local Premier League last season, are entering the second year of a five-year plan that Andrew Mak Yung-pan, the vice-chairman, wants to conclude with “the Kowloon City brand as an established name in the Hong Kong sports industry”.
Along with aiming to be “a conveyor belt” for the Hong Kong senior team, Mak said, the club had adopted a “counterintuitive” policy of signing young players “not with the prime objective of them playing for us”.
As part of a technical partnership with Juventus Academy Hong Kong, which is launching this month, three coaches are relocating from Italy to help oversee the club’s under-14, under-16 and under-18 teams.
Mak underlined that the Juventus academy was not a franchising model and that every decision had to be approved in Turin, while the two-time European champions’ Asian headquarters was in Hong Kong.
“We hope that by establishing a platform we can send players abroad as early as possible, but it has to be somewhere tailor-made for their characteristics,” Mak said.