Former North Korea manager Jorn Andersen tipped to lead Hong Kong football team
- Hong Kong Football Association has been looking for new coach after deciding not to extend Mixu Paatelainen’s contract in June
- Finn’s replacement to lead Hong Kong in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifying campaign set to kick off in February
The Hong Kong Football Association has targeted former North Korea manager Jorn Andersen to lead the representative team to next year’s 2023 Asian Cup qualification campaign.
The FA remains tight-lipped on who will succeed Finn Mixu Paatelainen, who left the Hong Kong team in June after the 2022 Fifa World Cup Asian zone qualifiers second round match against Bahrain – a 4-0 defeat – in June.
The search began for a new manager after deciding not to extend Paatelainen’s two-year contract and it is believed that 58-year-old Andersen, a former Norway international who coached the North Korean side from 2016-2018, is top of the shortlist of potential coaches who could lead Hong Kong.
Andersen is no stranger to Hong Kong, having led the North Koreans to a 1-1 draw with Hong Kong in an Asian Cup qualifier in 2017.
He left North Korea in 2018 after becoming the first foreign coach of the hermit country since the early 1990s and was soon appointed head coach of K-League side Incheon of South Korea.
He was sacked a year later by Incheon after the side remained bottom of the table after collecting just four points from seven matches.
Hong Kong coach Paatelainen in the dark over his future
“His experience in Asia is one of the reasons he caught the selectors’ eye,” said a source. “We also received applications from local candidates but they do not have the vision of coaching a national team for the regional tournament. The Asian Cup qualifiers begin next year and it will be a major target for the new coach.”
Kenneth Kwok Ka-lok, one of the most respected home-grown coaches, had been tipped to take up the baton but was not considered for the post this time.
Kwok has been out of a job since his club Pegasus pulled out of the Premier League this summer.
The Football Association will announce the new coach once they have completed all the hiring procedures and they plan to make a formal announcement when he arrives in Hong Kong next month, said the source.
As a striker, the Norwegian Andersen spent the better part of his playing career in Germany when he moved to Nurnberg in 1985.
He played for Eintracht Frankfurt and in 1990, Andersen became the season’s top goalscorer with 18 goals in the Bundesliga – the first for a foreign player. He then moved to Fortuna Düsseldorf and had also spells with Hamburger SV and Dynamo Dresden.
Hong Kong bow out with 4-0 defeat as Paatelainen sees red
Andersen also earned 27 caps for Norway, scoring five goals from 1985-1990.
He started his managerial career at FC Luzern of Switzerland in 2001 and managed a number of teams in Germany, Greece, Austria before he was appointed North Korea manager in 2016.
While he led North Korea against Hong Kong in 2017, Andersen famously told reporters that there were “fake reports” on the “Hermit Kingdom”.
“What I can tell you from what I read what many other people write about North Korea [is that they] are mostly wrong,” he said.
“When they write these wrong things, they have to think about it first. I have lived in Pyongyang for a year and I have no problems. I don’t understand why other people write these things.”
Hong Kong and 23 other teams will contest 11 spots in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers third round.
They will be joined by hosts China and 12 other teams who have already qualified. There have been reports that the Asian Football Confederation may postpone the tournament due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
