ON a searing day in August 1970, three Scotsmen walked off an aircraft at Kai Tak airport - and changed the face of Hong Kong soccer.
Twenty-three years later, two of the three of early adventurers are still in Hong Kong and doing nicely, thank you.
Derek Currie, public relations chief for Carlsberg brewery, and Walter Gerrard, sales chief for the Hiram Walker drinks concern, can now comfortably look back on those early days when they made history.
The third member of the band of the first overseas soccer professionals to play in Hong Kong was Jackie Trainer, who returned to England before drifting out of the game in the early 1980s.
Surrounded now by medals, mementoes and scrapbooks which recount the heady days of early professional soccer in Hong Kong, Currie and Gerrard remain firm friends and recall some great moments.
''I suppose all old pros look back and say: 'It just isn't the same today'. But, in truth, it isn't. And how can it be?'' asked Currie.
