Opinion | ‘They see my skin and I’m speaking Cantonese and are shocked’ – how Ghana-born Hong Kong footballer Christian Annan embraced new identity and culture

A fascinating day of discussion about Hong Kong football and its place in the city’s culture took place at the Education University of Hong Kong this week.

Organised by Dr Lawrence Ho Ka-ki of the social sciences department and football culture researcher and aficionado of the local game Tobias Zuser, it brought together FA officials, academics, fans, current and former players and coaches and others to discuss topics such as national identity, youth development, fan culture, gender, the “past, present and way ahead” and more.

Mark Sutcliffe, chief executive of the Hong Kong Football Association, gave a strong defence of his restructuring of an organisation simply “dysfunctional” when he took over, and highlighted some of the often-unreported progress made.

It may not always seems so, but there is no doubt local football is in a much better position than it was when he took charge of an organisation that at that point had not even bothered to prepare accounts for the previous five years – though he admitted there was plenty of work still to do.

One of the most interesting talks was about the nature of Hong Kong football and national identity, with professor Ma Ngok of the department of government and public administration at Chinese University of Hong Kong and Christian Annan, the Ghanaian-born Hong Kong international.