In the round of 16 men’s football match between host South Korea and Hong Kong at the Asian Games, a head coach familiar to South Korean football fans was giving orders and encouraging his players on the pitch from Hong Kong’s bench.

Kim Pan-gon, who took the helm of Hong Kong’s football team in 2009, was a former South Korean defender who didn’t leave much of a mark in South Korean football.

He made his Korean professional league debut in 1992 and retired after five years. He served as an assistant coach for a few club teams in the first-tier K-League but had never been promoted to head coach.

But he has been making great strides in Hong Kong football.

In the latest world football rankings, Hong Kong is ranked at No. 164 among FIFA’s 209 members.

Among 46 Asian Football Confederation countries, it ranks 33rd, with only Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal and East Timor behind it at this year’s Asiad.

In 2009, Hong Kong mapped out a 10-year plan, called Project Phoenix, to upgrade the sport to help the country become a dark horse on the world stage.

Kim is in the center of the project, leading the country’s national squads in all age groups, from youth to senior, to pick out young talents and foster them to become “decisive” players who can determine the outcome of the game.

“Our aim is to build a player to decide the game in the coming 10 years.

“For the goal, we are creating a nationwide curriculum to improve the training system for youth football,” said Kim. (Yonhap)