Hong Kong coach Jorn Andersen without all his mainland players as he names Asian Cup squad
- New head coach confirms 25-man squad with several new faces for friendly against Malaysia and Asian Cup qualifying campaign
- He had previously accused mainland Chinese clubs of pressuring players not to join up with Hong Kong team
As expected, the list of personnel for the qualifiers in Kolkata is missing midfield star Tan Chun-lok, of Chinese Super League club Guangzhou City, and defender Li Ngai-hoi, of Nantong Zhiyun in China League One, as well as forward Sandro and defenders Leung Nok-hang and Vas Nunez.
Leung and Nunez, who play in the Super League for Zhejiang and Meizhou Hakka respectively, and Sandro, of League Two side Guangxi Pingguo Haliao, had previously written to Andersen saying they would not be available, citing personal reasons. Tan and Li last week followed suit.
But there were several new faces in the 25-strong party to face Malaysia in a friendly on June 1 then take on Afghanistan, Cambodia and hosts India between June 8 and 14 for a place in next year’s Asian Cup finals.
Goalkeeper Paulo da Silva, defenders Tomas Maronesi and Sean Tse Ka-keung, and forwards Jesse Yu Joy-yin, Jahangir Khan and Fernando Pedreira could all make their debuts in the coming weeks. Pedreira had been called up before, for last year’s World Cup qualifiers in Bahrain, but he later withdrew.
