Maradona, Leo Messi and Son Heung-min – Hong Kong’s football tourists of the past
- Visitors range from Pele, Eusebio and Franz Beckenbauer in the 1970s to star-studded Liverpool and Manchester City teams in recent seasons
- With Lunar New Year Cup and preseason tours off because of Covid-19 it might be some time before another high-profile visit
Maradona, then 21, pulled the strings in a 2-0 victory in which Seiko finished goalless despite having brought in Fifa 1978 World Cup winner Gerd Muller for the game.
That match was just one example of some of the greatest footballers to have ever played the game showing their skills off in Hong Kong over the years, either on tours or in the annual Lunar New Year Cup.
Maradona – who died in November – visited Hong Kong years after his great rival for the best footballer of all time in the eyes of fans, Pele.
The Brazilian, who claims to have scored the most goals in history, filled his boots when he was in town with his club side, Santos.
The team were essentially perpetual tourists and visited the city more than once on their money-spinning jaunts around the world. “We were in demand,” wrote Pele in his autobiography. “The suits were very keen to cash in.”
Pele first came in 1970 – just months after the Brazil team won their third World Cup with Pele as its star – and helped himself to eight goals across four wins. He returned in 1972, scoring hat-tricks against Newcastle United and Caroline Hill to bump up his official account of 1,281 career goals.
Another star of the era played in Hong Kong too when Eusebio, the 1965 Ballon d’Or winner, visited in 1973.
The “Black Pearl” travelled with his Benfica side in a tour organised by “The Bogota Bandit” Charlie Mitten, the former Manchester United winger who had played in Colombia much to the chagrin of the English FA.
Eusebio was the European golden boot winner that year and showed his prowess in four games in the city across February and May.
Franz Beckenbauer played for the New York Cosmos against Seiko on September 20, 1979, winning a penalty that Giorgio Chinaglia converted in a 3-3 draw. The Cosmos won 6-0 with Chinaglia bagging another brace against the Hong Kong All-Stars four days later.
The 1980s were no different with Liverpool and Manchester United among the teams to visit, along with the likes of Hamburg, while the 1990s saw England famously visit before hosting Euro 96.
Manchester United began their tours to Hong Kong in 1975, returning the following decade and then becoming regular visitors from the 1990s and into the 2000s.
The 1999 treble winners came the summer after their triumph over Bayern Munich in Barcelona, while David Beckham would be back in Hong Kong in 2003 with Real Madrid’s “galacticos” such as Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Raul, Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos.
Figo, Raul and Ronaldo delivered the goals in a 4-2 win over a Hong Kong team that included several Dalian Shide players.
Raul would return with the New York Cosmos for the 2015 Lunar New Year Cup at Hong Kong Stadium, while Roberto Carlos would be back much sooner joining the rest of the 2002 Fifa World Cup winners in adding the 2005 Lunar New Year Cup to the national trophy cabinet.
Previous Lunar New Year Cups had seen players such as 1994 Ballon d’Or winner Hristo Stoichkov, who came in 1999 with his Bulgaria team. The former Barcelona star was at J League side Kashiwa Reysol at the time.
It is English Premier League teams that have dominated the city’s visiting teams, in large part because of the Premier League Asia Trophy.
Steven Gerrard and his Liverpool side came in 2007 for the first in the city, which was won by Portsmouth.
Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were among an all-star Chelsea side in Hong Kong for the Premier League Asia Trophy in 2011, which they won. The team ended the season as the Uefa Champions League and FA Cup winners. It was the club’s third visit to Hong Kong after trips in 1994 and 1997 with the likes of Gianluca Vialli in action.
Manchester City brought their galaxy of stars in 2013 for the Premier League Asia Trophy, which Spurs star Gareth Bale sat out because of injury. City would go on to win the English Premier League and the League Cup that season.
Spurs would return for a rare postseason friendly in 2017, with Son Heung-min lighting up Hong Kong Stadium and a flu-stricken Harry Kane making a cameo. The club lifted the Jockey Club Kitchee Centre Challenge Cup, their last silverware.
Liverpool would follow Spurs to Hong Kong later that summer. They won the Premier League Asia Trophy and then went on to reach the Uefa Champions League final at the end of the season, losing to Real Madrid.
Mohammed Salah, Philippe Coutinho and Divock Origi were among the club’s scorers on the tour for Jurgen Klopp’s side, the nucleus of which would go on to beat Spurs in the 2019 Uefa Champions League and end a 30-year wait to be champions of England, before winning the English Premier League last season.
Manchester City were the last visitors of note when they came in the summer of 2019, beating Kitchee 6-1, but arguably none have been bigger than Lionel Messi’s glittering Argentina side who came to the city in 2014 to celebrate the Hong Kong Football Association centenary.
The visitors ran out 7-0 winners at a half-full Hong Kong Stadium, with Messi scoring twice and laying on goal.
