So far the club, sponsored by a property company from Guangdong, have brought in only Guinean midfielder Cisse Mamoudou.

'We have identified two players from Portugal but some shareholders of the sponsor rejected the plan,' said team general manager Peng Changying who revealed that he had intended to recruit four more players from overseas - two strikers, a midfielder and a defender - but ran into hurdles.

'We will bring up the plan to their board of directors later after seeing the team's performances in the initial period,' Peng added.

Lanwa will be more than satisfied if they can finish in the top three in their debut season but Peng said he was worried it would take some time to get used to the conditions in Hong Kong as it is a new environment for his players.

'We have been preparing for the new season for six months,' Peng said. 'We have to make ourselves more familiar with the environment as soon as possible because we will have to play several away matches there.'

Peng has a first-team squad of 30 with an average age of 22. Aside from 19-year-old Mamoudou and former Buler Rangers defender Shang Yun-long, most are from the northeast of China.

'They are mainly from Tianjin, Dalian and Shenyang,' Peng said. 'Zhi Meng, Wang Gang, Chi Jingtian and Lin Zong were once in the national [China] junior squad and had experience in the first division of the China league last season. Their physical fitness is above average.'

Lanwa meet Hong Kong 08 tomorrow at their home base, Zengcheng sports ground in Dongguan.