Danielle Vos：Restarted my football career, and fight for the good of Hong Kong

Last season, Kitchee defeated Chelsea Football School (HK) 2-1 in the league final. At the end of this month, we will be traveling to Bhutan to compete in two AFC Champions League qualifying matches, aiming to become the first Hong Kong team to participate in the inaugural edition of the AFC Women’s Champions League.

Kitchee has already started their preseason training and preparations. In addition to bringing in several new signings, many key players from last season have remained with the squad. One standout performer from last year was Dutch Center Back Danielle Vos.

Danielle was born in Norway. As her father worked in airport construction, Danielle has lived a rather nomadic life, moving with her family to various places around the world, including Netherlands, United States, Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, only staying a few years in each location.

Three years ago, when her father got involved in the third-runway project at Hong Kong International Airport, Danielle decided to come to Hong Kong as well and pursue a master’s degree in business analytics at the University of Hong Kong.

Danielle wanders around with her family, but her passion for football has not diminished (provided by Danielle)

Restated

“My football career began in the US. When I was young, my parents encouraged me to try many different sports, but football was always my favorite. Football is a great social activity that has allowed me to easily make friends all around the world as I’ve lived in various places,” Danielle shared.

During her time in university, Danielle participated in NCAA competitions in the US. However, when she first arrived in Hong Kong, she suffered a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury, which kept her off the pitch in Hong Kong for a long time.

“Over the course of two and a half years, I underwent two major surgeries. At that point, I had already given up on the idea of playing football again. But one day, while doing rehab training with my physical therapist in Admiralty Park, he brought out a football and asked me to try kicking it. That’s when I realized how much I still missed the sport. After that, in addition to running and conditioning, I started incorporating ball work into my training sessions. That’s when I thought, ‘Maybe I could find a team to play for?’”

Although Danielle had been living in Hong Kong for some time, she didn’t have much knowledge about women’s football in the city. That’s when an intriguing turn of events occurred: “One day, Taylor Fu’s Instagram account randomly showed up in my feed. I saw that she played for Kitchee and had also competed in the NCAA in the US, so I decided to send her a direct message to ask for her opinion. She was very friendly and provided me with an overview of the women’s football landscape in Hong Kong, analyzing the different teams and how they operate. We stayed in touch, and eventually, Taylor invited me to train with Kitchee. Kitchee has excellent and professional rehabilitation facilities, their own gym, and training pitches. The coaches were also impressed with my performance, so I ended up signing with them.”

Taylor introduced Danielle to the Hong Kong women’s football circle (@hk_12th)

Professional?

Last season, Danielle played in all 22 of Kitchee’s official matches. Compared to the games she had participated in before, she found that the basic skills of Hong Kong women players, such as ball control and dribbling, were quite good. During her training in the US, she focused more on physical and tactical training, rather than emphasizing technical skills as much.

However, Danielle noticed a more obvious gap between the environment of Hong Kong women’s football and what she experienced overseas: “The women’s league doesn’t seem very professional. For example, some matches start as late as 9:00 pm, the pitch arrangements are quite casual, there’s no separation between the field and spectator areas, and there aren’t even dedicated changing rooms or lockers for the players. It’s like they just find a random community park space to play the games.”

“Of course, the level of play can’t be compared to other countries, but even within the local league, the disparity between the top and bottom teams is quite large. There are perhaps only 4-5 matches per season that have sufficient competitive intensity. To be honest, as the top-tier league in Hong Kong, we shouldn’t be seeing such lopsided results so often.

Even when I’m on the winning side, I don’t really want to beat the other team by 15 or 16 goals. For both us and the opposition, those kinds of results don’t hold much meaning. The other team doesn’t seem to gain much from it either.”

“The HKFA has tried hard to make the matches more professional, but has not been thorough enough in the implementation. For example, last season’s FA Cup final was held at the Hammer Hill Road Ground, where VAR, substitutes’ benches and dressing rooms were provided. However, the pitch conditions at Hammer Hill were very poor – the grass was very long and extremely slippery, so neither team could play their planned game. Also, we have been playing on artificial turf pitches all season, so the players may only have AG studs and may not have specially purchased screw-in studs for just one match.”

Nine-to-five

Kitchee, as the champions of the women’s league, will be making their first foray into an Asian competition. The team will be traveling to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, in late August to face the Iran Pro League champions Bam Khatoon, as well as the home team Royal Thimphu College. They will then return to Hong Kong for training to prepare for the matches.

“The Iran national team is very strong at the international level, so I expect their club team will also be a difficult opponent. The Bhutanese team is even more mysterious. The high-altitude climate is also a variable factor. I’ve asked some male players who went to Bhutan last year, and they said just running around in Thimphu was very difficult. So the challenges we’ll face will be immense. But we are still aiming to qualify, and we believe that the experience of playing there will help to promote women’s football in Hong Kong.”

In her first season, she participated in the women’s football league and played in all the matches (@hk_12th)

While playing for Kitchee on a semi-professional basis, Danielle also has a full-time 9-to-5 job. Every week, she prepares the ingredients for her daily dinners and stores them in the office refrigerator. When she gets off work, she just needs to reheat or lightly cook the food before rushing to training in Shek Mun. She doesn’t get home until 11 PM.

Though this back-and-forth schedule is tiring, her full-time job provides her with a lot of convenience. Her employer is also very understanding about her need to travel for matches and training, as she works for the Asia Football Group (AFG), which is under the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Her role involves finding sponsors, handling broadcast rights, and marketing promotion for major Asian competitions like the AFC Champions League and the AFC Asian Cup.

“Women’s football development in Asia has been relatively slow, and its commercial value is also lagging behind. Unless you play for a renowned European club, it’s quite difficult to become a full-time professional player. In fact, the women’s AFC Champions League also has international broadcasting, so the teams can start by doing a good job on social media to let more fans get to know the players, and then gradually build their brand and commercial value.”

Here is the English translation:

Danielle has been affected by injuries, and her knee still often aches. However, after graduating with a master’s degree last year and restarting her football career in Hong Kong, she does not want to give up again:

“I’m really enjoying training and playing matches with my teammates now. Of course, I may not necessarily want to become a professional player, but I still want to continue my football career. As for whether I’ll have the opportunity to naturalize and represent the Hong Kong team, it will depend on whether my physical condition allows it at the time. After all, I’ll be 28 years old by then, and I don’t want to stay in one place for too long. I want to continue exploring different things in the world, living and playing football in different countries.”

“I’m grateful to every fan, photographer, and industry professional who comes to support the Hong Kong women’s football team, even if we’re just playing in a community park. Their support gives us the opportunity to be seen and recognized. I also encourage everyone to keep up the enthusiasm. The Hong Kong women’s team still has a long way to go, and I really look forward to the day when our matches can be held in proper stadiums, with a full house. Wherever I may be at that time, I would love to witness that moment in person.”

In her first season, she joined and helped Kitchee defend their league championship title, and also secured qualification for the AFC Champions League preliminary round