AFC Asian Cup: Hong Kong head coach Andersen wants ‘quality’ overseas players given passports to boost side
- Hong Kong’s FA president pushing to speed up passport application process for Brazil-born defender Dudu
- Andersen says additions ‘will raise quality and competition in team’ with some players thinking they only had to show up to get selected
Hong Kong football bosses are “fighting” to secure a passport for Brazil-born centre-back Dudu in time for January’s AFC Asian Cup finals.
Head coach Jorn Andersen said Hong Kong Football Association president Pui Kwan-kay was doing everything he could to ensure the defender was naturalised before the biggest tournament the city’s team has played in for decades.
Andersen wants his side’s attacking strength to be replicated all over the field, after the recent additions of Everton Camargo and Michael Udebuluzor transformed the Hong Kong front line. Fellow strikers Juninho and Stefan Pereira are in the Asian Cup squad after obtaining passports this month.
But the Norwegian boss said defender Sean Tse Ka-keung, who is playing semi-professionally in the seventh tier of English football, had turned down the opportunity to take part in training camp ahead of next month’s competition in Qatar, meaning he would only be picked in an emergency.
Andersen, whose team play Kitchee in their opening practice match on Monday, has until January 4 to submit his 23-man Asian Cup squad.
“We are fighting [to have Dudu naturalised] and will try for as long as possible,” Andersen said. “We were planning to select him … we have got the biggest man in the FA [Pui] to push, push, push. But it might not be enough, because we need the paperwork.”