Ip Ka-yan, 26, currently a white-collar in Hong Kong and formerly a player in Hong Kong Women’s National Football Team. She has dreamt to be a female football player since she was young. In her 19th birthday, she had two surgeries on her cruciate ligaments due to the injuries from matches, causing her unable to join all the matches onwards. Going through different ups and downs in her life, she never gives up her dream and continue to foster the next generation by education. She wishes Hong Kong would have more resources put into women football. 

 

The development of women football in Hong Kong is relatively harder than other sports in Hong Kong. Traditional perception on “girls are weak” should be abandoned. Some local schools forbidden girls’ football team to be the extra-curriculum activities as schools are afraid that students would hurt easily and girls should behave tenderly. Support to women football is insufficient in Hong Kong.

 

For the team members in Hong Kong Women’s National Football Team, they face huge challenges either. As the team is operated under an amateur format. Members are required to participate in the practices during their free time. However, they often find themselves unable to balance the time of work and practices. They are sometimes exhausted after work which does not allow them to have enough concentration for further training. Current members hope that “football player” could be their permanent career with acceptable wage and a wide range of assistance for their advancement.