HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens: Luis Boa Morte tips Fulham’s kids to shine – as well as himself in Masters event
- Former Arsenal star Boa Morte to make his fifth appearance in the Soccer Sevens Masters tournament on Friday
- Newcastle, West Ham, Brighton and Aston Villa also among the English top-flight clubs who will feature in weekend’s main event
Team captains from Hong Kong and abroad, including several English Premier League clubs, get a glimpse of the trophies they will battle it out for at the HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens over the next three days.
The annual seven-a-side football tournament features local teams as well as academy sides from Aston Villa, West Ham United, Brighton & Hove Albion, Fulham, Leicester City and Newcastle United.
This year will also be the first time the Sevens has hosted a women’s tournament, which will start on Friday alongside the Masters, for players aged over 35.
Luis Boa Morte, who won the Premier League with Arsenal in 1998, will be making his fifth appearance at the Masters, this time as captain of PFA All Stars.
“I hope I can continue for many years and I’m really pleased to see these young players, but they have to watch us first, unfortunately for them,” he said on Thursday.
Boa Morte is now a first-team coach at Fulham and he said that several of the academy players he came with had been training with the senior professionals.
“I expect to see them shine in this tournament,” he said. “We have about nine of them training with the first team this season.
“The conditions are the same for everyone, so normally what happens in football is the team that make fewer mistakes have the greater chance of coming out on top.”
