#hongkongfootball | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zazasealada · 5 years ago

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Firstly, the protest are kinda getting out of hand. But it’s not really effecting me and where I live which is more in the city center. But sometimes they go to the central part of Hong Kong where the government buildings are which makes living near there very inconvienient. Some “super smart people” purposely stand in between the doors on the metro to stop the train from going causing a lot of inconvienience which is so annoying. But it’s very unlikely that you’ll get hurt or caught up in the drama.

And ya Hong Kong is super similar to Singapore both being very small asian cities ( or countries????) with an economic focus I guess. All the men here all fan of a premier league team especially Man U :( but the football quality here is really bad. The boys normally start at a very young age and join a club or a district team by the FA. And they play all the time with their friends or at school. Then they just keep playing until they go to university or high school when they have to focus on academics (which was always priority number 1). And they eventually get some white collar jobs and they never play again. Sometimes they find a few friends and play for leisure but they would normally just go to work and watch some premier league games.

But for girls it’s super different. I go to an international school so I can’t really speak on behalf of the people who go to local schools. Literally no one plays football here. I’m the only girl that plays in my year (what we call grade in my school). When I was in y3 (grade 2) I joined my school and started playing with the boys in recess. The boys were all the WTF A GIRL? PLAYING FOOTBALL? WTF IS THIS SHIT? But eventually they didn’t really care and just let me play. We also had extra curricular activities in school and they forced us all to play sports in elementary school. The girls were all forced to play NETBALL (a very British sport and google it, it’s like basketball but there’s no dribbling) I was pretty good at it tho and captained the team lmao so lame but I ABSOLUTELY HATED IT. Whilst the boys played football and I was super jealous. However there was a girl in the year above me who was better than me and she got to play football cuz she was recognized by the teachers. And ya that’s what my school did when I was in elementary school. But they changed it now and girls can play football so yay.

And now I’m in middle school/ high school and school is making me very busy but u would still play in extra curricular sessions where I’m the only girl. But there are more girls starting to play. My school has quite a few girls football teams and we compete against other international school teams in Hong Kong. And the u18 team won the cup this year but most of our players consists of 12 year olds playing against 18 year olds... and now my school is starting to care more about girls football.

I only joined a club last year I’ve tried joining a few before but there were only a few and they were very hard to find. My club does really well in the boys team and I have friends who play in it. So I assumed they were good but I went and they were not very good and most were just there as a weekend activity and for fun. But then I joined their u18 team which was better due to the national team players on the team. We play in the only girls league by the fa and there are only 8 teams. And there’s a team where all of the players play on the national team so obviously they are super g. There are also district teams but no one takes them seriously.

I was really clueless about the woso scene in hk before this year. It was really hard to find any information about how to get involved. And I always wanted to join the national team somehow even though I didnt know anything about it. And my coach from club really helped because he was also the u19 national team coach so he knew the system. Then I got an email to try out for the national team and I got in the u15 national team.

I went in and I was like I knew some of these girls and I realized I played agaigst them before. So that’s how small the woso community was. Hong Kong is an international city so some of the girls ( like me) don’t know how to speak Cantonese which is the language we use in training and we just speak English to each other. And we kinda have a hard time communicating to the local girls. We have good facilities tho and we train in a great surrounding.

I heard from my friends that the boys team gets paid for just training. It’s not a lot but they still get paid. And we don’t. But I think they will. Idk it’s really weird. I also read that the senior women’s team barely get paid to train or at all which is saddening considering they also have their full time jobs. Since women’s football isn’t professional even though there are many leagues. So that’s not great.

And ya football isn’t really considered as a career in Hong Kong. Parents want their children to get a stable job (being a doctor or lawyer, ur typical asian parent) and focus on academics. However there are some women players that go abroad. One is in uk somewhere, one played in Brisbane roar and another is in the us playing at a university.

I want to go to the us for university and play football there to and there is a company that I joined that helps Hong Kong kids get to us universities on sports scholarships. And now they are changing the way that parents view football and academics. Its really cool. And now I’m working towards the goal to get to a good university and also play football.

Still the stigma is there that girls shouldn’t play football and rather do ballet or just play piano or focus on academics or some shit. But my parents don’t really care so much which is great. And there isn’t a career in football and people have to stick to their stable desk jobs.

The media never talks about women’s football except for a newspaper Called south China morning post which is mainly aimed at English speakers. So local people don’t really get that information. And literally no one knows anything about woso. Except for some of my teammates but tbh they only know Alex Morgan and it’s sad. My friends at school don’t care and the boys only know Alex Morgan and the pink hair girl. :( and when I wore a Portland thorns shirt in public no one could care less tho. And it’s just so sad so I wish there was more media attention and more people would appreciate these incredible women!

Ur from Singapore?! I live in Hong Kong and practically no one knows anything about woso except for some of my team mates that I play with in my club or national team. Like wut. There was no news about the World Cup on tv or newspapers. And the woso community in hk is super small I’m pretty sure I’ve played against all the girls who play soccer at my age group. But the FA is giving woso more attention with social media. Is it like that in Singapore or is it better?

Hi! Omg I really hope you’re doing alright at Hongkong! Seeing the recent demonstrations

And OMG are you on the national team of hongkong? That’s so cool! I’ll be an immediate fan!

But yes Singapore I would say would be quite similar to yours in hongkong! I played in my junior college(which is the school we go to before university, to take a levels), which was actually my first exposure to women’s Football. Before that I really thought it was just purely a men’s game. My dad would always drag me to male national team games and tried to get into Manchester United but I was never interested. Like only until junior college, which by then, I was already 17.

Before that, my exposure to Football was only in short sessions in pe lessons where usually due to peer pressure, not a single girl would go to, because honestly we didn’t even know there was women’s football & I think most of my Friends, it’s only after I joined the sport & sharing about woso & uswnt to them then THEY KNEW about them, which is so so sad.

There’s hardly any academies here, even for boys. There are a few clubs but I don’t think the men’s league is even that well recognised & the women’s league is so under the radar that no one literally knows. I definitely know that I wouldn’t have known if I wasn’t in Soccer myself & searched it up. They play in really discrete locations that no one ever goes & I don’t think they even sell tickets.

For women’s Football, there isn’t any primary school(ages 6-12) that offers. Which I think personally is a waste because that’s the age where children cultivate their foundation for Football the easiest and build up their interest & passion for the sport. In secondary school(ages 13-16) too, there’s only about 3 schools that offer & they’re the only 3 that have Football programs inside. As for junior college, most have women’s Football, but due to the lack of support for the sport, all the girls that join literally have no skill sets, mostly join without experience, but like me, they fall in love with it and have regrets of not joining the sport earlier. Each team have a handful that can play, but the rest usually just use their speed and stamina to play & it just looks like a mess. But I would say the most support given for women’s Football is probably in the junior college league, where there is actually quite a lot of support, but school based. In universities, there are definitely teams, but there isn’t any news/support about them either.

I only knew that there was such a thing of WOMEN playing SOCCER when I was 17. Can you believe it? 17? And most of my friends around me still don’t care about it, except for some in the team that I introduced the uswnt to(lol the blackhole:). It’s just really sad. And it’s my life now, I try to practice AND STUDY Everyday. It just changed my life and some others too. But most still don’t really care. For the WWC this year, I was lucky that beinsports Asia broadcasted the WWC (usually I watch illegally online which is now for nwsl) although they only broadcasted some... like the USA v SWEDEN MATCH they played thailand v Chile instead ahaha and after the WWC was over, there wasn’t any broadcasts of women’s Soccer anymore. Our newspapers did publish articles about woso but mostly it was just USWNT(which ok is cool already) but after the ‘hype period’ it was kind of gone, it went back to daily reports of the premier league etc.

I would say that I’m lucky to be in a school that is sports crazy so the entire school would head down to support us for matches, but other schools aren’t the same & definitely not for national teams.

There’s a stigma of Football in society that it isn’t considered as a career/ feasible dream, because of sometimes corruption & the lack of success in the national level. Singapore overly emphasises on academics & success & science unfortunately, so youths with dreams for sports often end up working in white collar jobs rather than pursuing their dreams. Mostly because most of the players aren’t able to support their lifestyle with the lack of pays.

I’ve got some seniors that went on to try to pursue their dreams, getting into us universities & playing at small clubs there. Or just playing in our national clubs. But mostly take it as a hobby or give up for a main job anyway. It is quite horrible. I see so many of inspiring individuals that end up doing something else that I know doesn’t give them as much of a glint in The Eye as Football does for them but there’s no other choice.

I would say Singapore is a practical society, so as to sustain our growth, we will have to remain competitive, even if there are some sacrifices. There are definitely more notion of support for women’s Football lately, more conversation, but Football still remains more of a male-dominated sport sadly. Especially with conservative households that doesn’t like females going out to play sports... like mine but I kinda don’t care!

I hope to continue playing Football, but I definitely hope that we can continue pushing so that more will come and support the growth of youth development in countries around the world, to invest in women, so that our sport can grow so that every little girl can know about Soccer and have the opportunity and facilities to help her get there, to achieve her dreams.

How is it like in hongkong? Or in any of your countries? Are you all stuck in a situation similar to this too?

#woso #hongkong #hongkongfootball #equality

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