Chan Yuen-ting: Hong Kong soccer’s biggest success story of the year, and possibly its least likely

Twelve months ago when former head coach Yeung Ching-kwong quit Eastern midway through the season to take up an offer with China League One club Meizhou Hakka, nobody would have expected assistant coach Chan Yuen-ting, a woman, to take over the reins.

A year later, few would have expected Chan who had no prior experience as the head coach of a professional side, would lead Eastern to two major pieces of silverware – the Hong Kong Premier League championship and the Senior Shield – bringing her a series of personal honours as she became the first female to coach a top-tier professional club to the league title.

“We have never expected what has happened to Chan when we decided to appoint her as our head coach midway through last season,” said Eastern executive director Peter Leung Shou-chi. “Back last year when our former head coach Yeung Ching-kwong suddenly stepped down after receiving a good offer from the mainland, we had to find a replacement as soon as possible.

“And after considering a new coach from outside might take time as it was in the middle of the season and we could hardly spare the time it would take for a newcomer to get used to the players and the players to get used to them, we offered the opportunity to Chan who had been the assistant coach since the beginning of the season and understood well the needs of the management and the players.”

But even when Eastern won the championship in May, Leung said it was not a big thing outside Hong Kong as not may people noter the goings on in the Premier League of a small city on a global perspective.

But then the Guinness World Records officially recognised Chan as the first female coach worldwide to lead a top-tier club to a championship, and it began a snowball effect with a lot of international media attention centering on Chan.