Australian-Hong Kong futsal star Aaron Yu dreams of taking Victoria state success to the international scene
- Hong Kong-born Yu wins another Series Futsal Victoria award as he targets league domination next season
- The accomplished goalkeeper wants to reignite Asia-Oceania futsal and is open to representing either national team
Hobbling up to collect an impressive fourth Golden Gloves award in as many years after another successful Series Futsal Victoria (SFV) season, Hong Kong-born Aaron Yu Pok-man hopes to put his season-ending injury behind him as soon as possible.
“There’s actually a video of it – I don’t know why they’d post a video – but it’s a constant reminder of how I did it,” joked the 25-year-old goalkeeper Yu, who suffered a fully ruptured Achilles in January.
“Basically, I went for a regulation jump-and-catch but never actually left the ground. The funny thing in the moment was that when people rupture their Achilles, they don’t really know and it kind of feels like somebody just kicked it. I thought somebody had kicked me so I turned around and asked the referee to give out a yellow card ... then they showed me the replay and there was no-one within 20 metres of me,” he recalled, adding that he had a successful surgery and doctors expect six to eight months of rehabilitation and recovery.
Yu, whose Melbourne Lions Futsal Club narrowly finished this campaign as runners-up, tasted SFV championship gold with previous club Fitzroy and has had stints with Hume, Western Wolves and Pascoe Vale.
While the league is still considered semi-professional – like most of the Asia-Oceania scene – it is the highest conference league in the region and the level of futsal has been on the up for years.