‘LOOK AT MESSI AND MARADONA’: SIZE WON’T LIMIT HONG KONG MIDFIELD TALENT JESSE YU, WHO IS PLAYING A TRANSFER WAITING GAME
- Jesse Yu is starring for an Eastern team flying high in the local Premier League, and eyeing FA Cup success
- Head coach Roberto Losada insists Yu will become a fixture in the Hong Kong team, and has the potential to become a great player
One of the city's most exciting young footballers, Jesse Yu Joy-yin, is in no rush to join Hong Kong teammates flocking to the mainland, following a fabulous 2024 for the Eastern midfielder.
Yu's nimble feet led Kitchee's foreign stars on a merry dance on Wednesday, as swashbuckling Eastern beat the defending champions 2-1 at a boisterous Mong Kok Stadium.
Roberto Losada, the Eastern head coach, told the Post that Yu boasted the potential to be a "great player ... to grow up and go to another country, to be better, and earn more money".
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Given his playing pedigree with Real Oviedo and Real Valladolid in La Liga - where he scored goals in Barcelona's Camp Nou and Real Madrid's Bernabeu Stadium - and an astuteness that earned him the 2023 Hong Kong coach of the year, Losada's is a voice worth hearing.
He dismissed the notion of Yu being held back by a small, slight frame, making his point with a reference to the similar statures of some of the game's greatest-ever players.
"I am not comparing him to [Lionel] Messi or [Diego] Maradona, of course, but every player has different qualities," Losada said. "He is not going to win high balls, but he is fast and can carry the ball.
"He has to exploit his attributes, and work defensively to help the team - then he can be a great player".
Yu started only three league matches for former club BC Rangers last season. His curve began trending upwards with a string of influential performances for the Hong Kong under-23s in their Asian Games semi-final run last October.
The 22-year-old's displays in Hangzhou, married to a gutsy attitude, earned him a senior squad place for January's AFC Asian Cup finals. He remains on the fringes of head coach Jorn Andersen's side, although Losada tipped him to soon be "one of the fixed players in the Hong Kong team".
Yu said: "Just because I've had a couple of good games, I'm not going to demand to start. I feel I can play at that level, but I still have a lot to improve."
Yu is adopting a similar stance on the prospect of swapping Eastern for the mainland. Representative teammates Sun Ming-him and Oliver Gerbig secured Chinese Super League transfers following the Asian Cup, but both players are featuring only intermittently for their new clubs.
"I want to aim for somewhere higher [than Hong Kong], and be able to experience more as a professional footballer, but I need to take my time and keep improving," Yu said.
"I don't think I am good enough yet to perform really well abroad. I am getting there, and I believe I will get there.
"It is not hard to find [an opportunity with a foreign club], but going to the right environment, where you are valued as a player, and allowed to perform, is much more difficult.
"I have heard of players in the past who went [to the mainland], just for the experience. I respect that, but it is not what I want.
"I want to go to play; the only way to continue improving is to play games."
Yu refused to put a time frame on his plans, but said he wanted to "experience a season where I play every game".
Fitness permitting, he is all but guaranteed a regular position with Eastern, where Yu is among a handful of young players underpinning the district club's fabulous campaign.
Yu credited Losada and his coaching staff for "giving me so much encouragement and confidence, and allowing me to express myself on the field".
"I am really happy that I've changed something in my head to be able to perform like I am," he said.
"I have a better mindset; I just go out and do my best. There is no point playing football if you fear everything."
Eastern are third in the Hong Kong Premier League, and will resume their spiky rivalry with Kitchee in a forthcoming FA Cup semi-final tie.
Among a near-2,000 crowd watching the midweek success were scores of the club's academy players, and a contingent of supporters from Eastern's new mainland team, Shunde Eastern.
"It's really important to show them what it means to play for Eastern, and to play professional football in Hong Kong," Yu said.
"The club is developing and growing, and it is great to be part of this Eastern family."
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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2024-05-03T06:57:28Z dg43tfdfdgfd
