Senegal’s Sane says Hong Kong football needs better pitches or it risks harming young talent
Forward settled in Hong Kong, as latest stage of career ‘project’ gathers momentum with Kowloon City
Kowloon City striker Abdoulaye Sane has urged local football chiefs to provide better training surfaces or risk injuries for some of Hong Kong’s outstanding young players.
The former Senegal international, who has played in France’s Ligue 1 and the moneyed Saudi Pro League, joined Kowloon in January, midway through the district club’s encouraging debut Hong Kong Premier League campaign.
Kowloon, whose 16-year-old forward Fung Tin-wing became the league’s youngest scorer in Sunday’s 5-1 loss to Eastern, train on artificial turf at Shek Kip Mei Park.
“In France, teams don’t like training on this surface,” said Sane, who is a close friend and former international roommate of Al-Nassr’s ex-Liverpool and Bayern Munich forward Sadio Mane.
“It’s not good for the knees. For players who are 21 or 22, injuries will come. We want better pitches.”
Chan Ming-kong, the Kowloon head coach, who acknowledged the unforgiving turf forced him to ration the training loads of his players, said he was lucky to sign Sane following copious research on the forward.