Hong Kong Premier League: Kitchee’s Dejan Damjanovic scores hat-trick, Fabio oldest scorer at 44
- Champions Kitchee stay top after first hat-trick from veteran Dejan Damjanovic, 39, while Fabio becomes oldest scorer at 44
- ‘Never too old to improve or be developed in football,’ says Zesh Rehman after Southern win
Age ain’t nothing but a number, they say. Fabio Lopes of Tin Shui Wai Pegasus is proof of that.
The veteran became the oldest scorer in the Hong Kong Premier League on Sunday with the winner against Resources Capital.
Fabio, who retired in 2018 before reversing his decision, is 44.
His goal proved the winner in a 3-2 comeback victory for Pegasus.
Felipe Sa had put the new boys ahead in the first half. Nilson Dos Santos equalised before the interval but Resources Capital retook the lead early in the second half – Liu Yik-shing heading in a Cheng King-ho cross.
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Nilson dos Santos again levelled before Fabio’s late winner.
Another player defying Father Time is Kitchee’s Dejan Damjanovic.
The 39-year-old scored his first Kitchee hat-trick in their 3-1 win over Happy Valley, taking his tally to 10 goals in 10 games since arriving from South Korea.
The veteran’s hat-trick was met with a consolation by Happy Valley’s Wong Ho-yin, tapping in after Mikael Severo’s header was saved.
Age has been a subject of interest this week after the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) published their findings on under-21s playing time in world football.
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Happy Valley have given more than 25 per cent of minutes to under-21s, far and away the most in the HKPL.
After Happy Valley – according to CIES – it is Pegasus who give the most minutes to young players in Hong Kong, at 7.6 per cent before this weekend.
Interestingly, the top two teams in Hong Kong – Kitchee and Eastern – are the two with the oldest average ages, both over 30 and the only teams to do so.
The latter of that pair kept the title race alive but made hard work of it in a 3-2 win over Lee Man.
It was Lee Man who went 2-0 up inside 15 minutes thanks to a Lee Hong-lim brace.
Eastern then passed up the chance to half the deficit when Fernando had a penalty saved and it remained 2-0 at half-time.
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Sandro pulled one back five minutes after the break with Chung Wai-keung levelling it up just before the hour.
The comeback was completed when Fernando followed up his own rebound with three minutes left but Eastern hearts were in mouths when Lee Man’s Manu Bleda rattled the crossbar in injury time.
Eastern are six points off Kitchee but have a game in hand. The teams will meet again once the league splits into two.
In the weekend’s other game, Southern notched a welcome win over Rangers at Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground, which took them above the hosts in the table.
A Stefan Pereira brace, one in each half, put the visitors in control before a nervy finish following Rangers’ Augusto da Silva pulling a goal back in injury time
Southern boss Zesh Rehman tweeted after the win.
“Victory is always better when you see players get the rewards on match day for the constant repetition of basic skills in training. Never too old to improve or be developed in football!”
