Lunar New Year Cup: world’s most diverse football tournament remains a fixture on the Hong Kong calendar

Fernando Torres and Marouane Fellaini will follow in the footsteps of football’s biggest names in appearing at the historic tournament

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Brazil's World Cup winning midfielder Ronaldinho played at the 2005 Lunar New Year Cup. Photo: AFP

Jonathan White

Published: 2:15pm, 3 Feb 2019Updated: 10:25pm, 3 Feb 2019

When Fernando Torres takes to the field for Sagan Tosu against Shandong Luneng it will be his third visit to Hong Kong.

But this will be his first Lunar New Year Cup, and with the greatest of respect to the Premier League Trophy Asia, this is a bigger deal.

Torres came with Liverpool in 2007 and again with Chelsea in 2011 but that was for a glorified pre-season kickaround, the LNY Cup on the other hand is steeped in history and has long been a part of the city’s celebrations.

Since the first Lunar New Year Cup in 1908, football has been a fixture on Hong Kong’s calendar and there are not many tournaments that can trace their history back over a century.

This year the four-team format sees a Hong Kong League XI take on the might of Japan’s Sagan Tosu, Chinese Super League stalwarts Shandong Luneng and New Zealand powerhouses Auckland City.

The resumption of battle between teams from the mainland and Hong Kong is a nod to where the tournament started and how it remained until 1950 when foreign teams were introduced for exhibition games against local clubs and Hong Kong representative teams.