Macau head coach and new reality TV star Kwok says Hong Kong post is his ‘ideal job’
Kenneth Kwok confident his lowly team will be competitive in Hong Kong friendly, as he juggles international duties with TV coaching role
The Macau head coach, Kenneth Kwok Kar-lok, said managing Hong Kong would be his “ideal job”, but not until he had revitalised football in his adopted region.
And with Hong Kong turning to Englishman Ashley Westwood to replace Norwegian Jorn Andersen, Kwok wants to see a local coach take charge of the city’s team soon.
The 44-year-old, who has overseen Hong Kong age-group teams and multiple clubs in the city, accepted his first senior international post last November because it was “a good pathway to further develop my career”.
While proud of being the world’s only current national team boss from China, he acknowledged it would be “very difficult” to achieve his target of leading Macau into the next AFC Asian Cup main qualifying draw.
Football in Macau is entirely amateur, while, last year, a Fifa ruling stripped the representative team of a host of key Portugal-born players, who were permanent residents but not passport holders.
The world No 193 side play Hong Kong on March 19, six days before Westwood’s team take on Singapore in an Asian Cup qualifier. Kwok was not surprised to hear Hong Kong fans calling Macau too weak to be credible opposition.
