Hong Kong Premier League champions Kitchee sending young prospects to Spain with loan deals on the line
- Shinichi Chan, Ellison Tsang-yi, and Chen Ngo-hin in first batch of players heading to former coach Josep Gombau’s youth programme in Amposta
- ‘The pandemic will not stop Kitchee or Hong Kong football from moving forward,’ the club’s president Ken Ng Kin says
Reigning Hong Kong Premier League champions Kitchee will send three promising players to a “youth internship programme” in Spain next season with the objective of securing a loan deal with a Spanish team.
The programme, run by former Kitchee head coach Josep Gombau, will take about 30 elite international youth players to a high-intensity training camp at the Terres de l’Ebre Sports High Performance Centre in Amposta, eastern Spain, the club confirmed in a press release on Wednesday.
Shinichi Chan, 19, and 18-year-old pair Ellison Tsang Yi-hang and Chen Ngo-hin were nominated for Kitchee’s first batch of prospects, in a programme all parties hope will become a sustainable annual pathway for local talent development.
The trio will travel with Kitchee’s senior team for their Asian Champions League group game campaign in Thailand on Thursday, before leaving for Amposta, located in the Catalonian province of Tarragona, in May.
The players will spend about two weeks training with yet-to-be named local Spanish teams, before returning to Hong Kong in mid-May.
Should they impress, they will earn a one-year loan contract with the respective clubs and return to Spain for preseason in August.