Arsenal fans descended on Kai Tak Stadium on Wednesday for a first glimpse of their idols in the flesh at the Hong Kong Football Festival.
The Gunners, who last played in Hong Kong 13 years ago, held a public training session at the 50,000-capacity Kowloon venue.
Cheung Pak-ling, an Arsenal fanatic from the New Territories, said he had “been waiting for this day for a very long time”. “I’ve never seen them live – it’s going to be so different,” he said.
He introduced Arsenal to his wife, who gave her name as Mrs Cheung, when the pair began dating more than a decade ago.
The pair have happily forked out a total of HK$9,394 (US$1,197) for six tickets for Arsenal’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur at the stadium on Thursday.
“I wasn’t interested in football, but now I find it an amazing and attractive world,” Mrs Cheung said. “Since we were together, he’s been talking about when Arsenal would come to Hong Kong.”
