HKFC Soccer Sevens: event in Hong Kong helps English Premier League kids grow up, Fulham coach says
- ‘It is fantastic for the players to experience international travel, to face different teams, with different styles,’ Cottagers coach Hayden Mullins says
- Host of Premier League clubs feature at end-of-season tournament, with Newcastle, West Ham, Brighton and Aston Villa also in hunt for trophy
Fulham under-21 head coach Hayden Mullins said the HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens would help his players “grow up”, on and off the field.
The seven-a-side format is an outlier in world football, but Mullins, a former Premier League midfielder with West Ham United and Portsmouth, insisted playing with reduced numbers on a large-scale pitch provided a crash course in various footballing qualities.
Mullins was also using the Hong Kong trip to discover how his players managed a “test of character”, having travelled 6,000 miles directly after a 10-month campaign.
Fulham beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 in the under-21 Premier League Cup final last week, but began slowly in Hong Kong. They snatched a draw with Glasgow Rangers before beating Hong Kong under-20s and hosts HKFC to secure a spot in Sunday’s quarter-finals.
“We are always judging the players, and when we are away they have to correctly represent the club,” Mullins said.
“You see who can handle the demands, because it is tough. There is a lot of travelling, and a lot asked of them, because of the number of games. At the end of the season, it is a test of character.
