Mixu Paatelainen’s Hong Kong team would reap reward of more players in Chinese Super League, says Andy Russell

There are only a handful of Hong Kong’s footballers in China, but Hebei China Fortune’s Andy Russell would like to see more.

The Hong Kong central defender and striker Alex Akande at Dalian Yifang are the only two in the Chinese Super League, with Festus Baise at Guizhou in China League One. Last season, Russell was in that division with Liaoning Whowin.

“It is something I push when I’m back. I always try to push the younger players. Not are you only getting access to bigger crowds, better games, better training facilities and much better opportunities to improve yourself as a player, there’s the financial incentive as well. China can really help change your life. At the moment Hong Kong is not quite there.

“It would help the Hong Kong team as well. Any player getting exposure to improved training conditions and better quality of training, higher intensity games, more games, it’s only going to benefit Hong Kong football as a whole.

“Hopefully, people will look at my path or Alex Akande’s path and think if those guys can do it, I can do it.

“When we’re looking at China, at the bottom of the pyramid they are putting a lot of emphasis on coaching and bringing coaches in. Hong Kong needs to do the same. That’s where we are going to see a real change and improvement in players.

“I miss living in Hong Kong. I was fortunate enough to grow up here so I have a lot of my friends here but I would never swap football. I think Hong Kong football has a long way to go in terms of professionalism, how the players are looked after, the exposure in terms of training facilities.

“Even when I was playing with Liaoning, the training facilities and the way the players were looked after was totally different – a million miles from what I was used to in Hong Kong.

“I’d gone from Tai Po and 45 minutes travelling on the bus and MTR everyday, washing my own kit, to having access to all these wonderful facilities and that has probably helped me as a player a lot.

I don’t miss playing in Hong Kong,” he said.

But he does like playing with Hong Kong, with Gary White his favourite coach to work under in his career so far.

“Just a great man manager. It obviously helped that he picked me for every game. He just created a real self-belief among the team but that sort of transcended because that’s what everyone felt within themselves. That’s probably the most relaxed and confident that I’ve felt. He just seemed a very good, genuine guy.”

Can new coach Mixu Paatelainen, who leads his first game against Taiwan on Tuesday night, build on White’s work?

“Absolutely. Although it was a very brief reign under Gary White. We’d gone from being comprehensively beaten by North Korea in March and, fast forward to the EAFF in the November, the whole mindset had shifted – this was a team we could beat and do well against. In the end it was a draw and then goal difference that got us through. We came off the pitch against North Korea the second time around almost disappointed that we’ve not got the win.

“Hopefully the nucleus of the squad now was there with Gary White, hopefully we can carry that forward. The (Taiwan) game is a really good opportunity to win and win well. Have a really good performance before we’re set into World Cup qualifiers and the EAFF at the end of the year.

“Some of us have made the transition to become Super League players, other people have enjoyed great seasons at the likes of Tai Po. Hopefully, that is only going to serve us well.”

Russell says success at the EAFF was “breaking new ground”, while Hong Kong were unlucky to have Lebanon and North Korea in their AFC Asian Cup group.

“I would put Hong Kong above the Philippines, India, and they went on to make it to the Asian Cup,” he said.

That’s why he is positive ahead of the World Cup qualifiers beginning in September, with the draw coming next month, and then the EAFF Championships against Japan, China and South Korea in December.

“Why not make it through that group and push on? Come December there’s an opportunity to test ourselves against the best teams in Asia and see how far or how close Hong Kong are.”