The prestigious Chinese New Year Cup, which was last held in Hong Kong in 2019, will return to the city on February 13. This year’s edition of the event will put the spotlight on a friendly match between the World Legends and Hong Kong Legends at the Hong Kong Stadium.
World-class players such as Brazilian Ballon d’Or winner Rivaldo, Italian football icon Alessandro Del Piero, and four-time La Liga top scorer David Villa will be part of the match’s star-studded line-up. The Hong Kong team will include former Hong Kong goalkeeper Fan Chun Yip, the territory’s most capped player Yapp Hung Fai, and Hong Kong Rangers midfielder Au Yeung Yiu Chung.
Tickets for the match will go on sale at 11am on January 18, and will be priced at HK$180, HK$280, HK$400, HK$600, HK$800, and HK$980. The match will kick off at 5pm on February 13, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.
The Chinese New Year Cup is an annual invitation tournament organised by the Hong Kong Football Association, and was first played in 1908. Matches were usually played on the first and fourth days of the Lunar New Year. Shandong Luneng Taishan were the winners during the 2019 edition of the tournament, which also featured the Hong Kong League XI, Sagan Tosu, and Auckland City teams.
Hong Kong will host two more high-profile exhibition football matches in the coming weeks. The first is the World Football Masters Cup 2024 on January 20 that will see two teams led by star players Michael Owen and Paul Scholes go head-to-head in a friendly match. However, the biggest football event of the year so far is the highly anticipated Inter Miami vs Hong Kong match on February 4 that will have eight-time Ballon d’Or recipient Lionel Messi as part of the line-up.
To buy tickets for the Chinese New Year Cup, visit the event website.
Header image credit: Tom Booth via Flickr
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