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Chan set to make history as Evergrande challenge awaits
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CHAN Yuen-ting of China’s Hong Kong will smash another hole through football’s glass ceiling when she makes history in the AFC Champions League today — but it couldn’t be a tougher debut for the trailblazing female coach.
Chan, nicknamed “Beef Ball” and just 28 years old, will etch her name in the record books as the first woman worldwide to lead a professional men’s team into continental competition, at the helm of Hong Kong’s Eastern FC.
The game is not far from Hong Kong, in southern Chinese mainland — but it is against Guangzhou Evergrande, the mega-rich club with two ACL titles and six straight domestic trophies to its name.
But for Chan, who last year became the first female coach to win a top-flight men’s league, it will be an honor to face Evergrande and its World Cup-winning coach, Brazil’s Luiz Felipe Scolari.
“I never imagined or expected this could happen but now we’re going to play against him so I feel excited and I’m looking forward to meeting him,” she told the Asian Football Confederation website.
“All I need to do is focus on our team and concentrate on the work that we are doing.”
Chan’s ground-breaking 2016 Hong Kong title with Eastern made headlines around the globe, and earned her the AFC’s coach of the year award and a place in a BBC list of the world’s 100 most influential women.
Eastern then became Hong Kong’s first club to be handed an automatic berth in the ACL group stage, thanks to the recent performances of the city’s teams in AFC competitions.
Chan said Eastern would concentrate on defending today — understandably, against a team which can call on the Brazilian firepower of Paulinho, Ricardo Goulart and Alan.
“We need to focus on defense, and especially our discipline and attitude during the match,” Chan said. “At this moment I don’t want to create extra pressure for myself and my players so we just want to do our best and try to go as far as we can.”
Chan, whose nickname “Beef Ball” refers to her competitive spirit and is often chanted by Eastern fans, first caught the football bug when she was 13 and had a crush on David Beckham.
She followed Manchester United games on TV and her passion eventually led her into coaching, despite opposition from her parents.
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