Champions Aston Villa to return for Soccer Sevens
Seven-time winners and defending champions Aston Villa will return to Hong Kong for the HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens in May, alongside a host of other English Premier League clubs.
The Soccer Sevens, this year celebrating its 25th anniversary, will take place from May 24 to 26.
It will feature a women’s edition for the first time, but organisers said the eight teams taking part would be announced in April.
Last year, Aston Villa won the 16-team, three-day tournament, after a four-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
They will be joined this year by three-time winners Newcastle and fellow Premier League sides Fulham, West Ham United, and Brighton and Hove Albion. Regular visitors Rangers of the Scottish Premiership and Leicester City – two-time Sevens winners – will also be there.
Tai Po, last year’s runners up, will represent the Hong Kong Premier League alongside HK U23 in the tournament, which comprises 16 teams in the main event and 10 in the Masters event.
“It is our great pleasure to welcome defending champions Aston Villa back to Hong Kong for what will surely be another thrilling edition,” HKFC chairman Neil Jensen said. “I’m always excited to see what young stars these clubs bring to Hong Kong, as some of them go on to great things in the future.”
England international Jack Grealish, the £100 million (HK$987.5 million) Manchester City midfielder and a treble winner last season, played in the Hong Kong tournament on three occasions while he was on the books at Aston Villa’s youth academy.
Among those who have played in Hong Kong before graduating to the club’s first team are England international Gabriel Agbonlahor and Barry Bannan – player of the tournament in 2006 and 2008, respectively.
Others who have passed through the doors at Hong Kong Football Club include Marc Albrighton, who won the Premier League with Leicester City in 2015-16, and Poland international and Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.
In previous years, the Hong Kong Football Association suspended fixtures in the men’s Premier League so that players could play in the Sevens, but the Post understands that will not be happening this year.