Who is Hong Kong’s new coach? ‘Future England manager’ Gary White’s in his own words
In-demand Englishman has experience around the world and has led four nations to their best Fifa rankings
After several months of speculation, Englishman Gary White was finally formally announced as the new Hong Kong football team head coach on Monday.
He’s fresh off a stint in charge of the Chinese Taipei Football Association’s men’s international side, and some regard him as Taiwan’s best manager ever on account of the dramatic rise up the rankings he oversaw with assistant manager Louis Lancaster.
So who exactly is the man tasked with getting Hong Kong football back to its best?
He started coaching early
White came up through the Southampton FC academy, his hometown club, but did not go on to a professional career with the south coast side or anywhere else. Instead his playing days were semi-pro at nearby Bognor Regis United in the lower tier of English football and at Western Australia state-league side Fremantle.
He retired at 21 in order to concentrate on coaching. “At that point I made a conscious decision that I needed 10 years headstart on those big players that are going to retire,” he said in an interview with These Football Times in 2015, “and the only way I’m going to get myself in front is to get coaching now and getting the experience because my playing background won’t put me in front of these people.”
Starting early is a message he returns to and now, aged 44, he has had two decades of experience most of it at the international level.