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.
