Davor Suker Joins Hong Kong Football Association as Honorary President

When John Morling walked into the Hong Kong Football Association 2½ years ago, he carried a simple, audacious question with him. Looking at Croatia’s improbable rise, he asked: “Why can’t that be us?”

On paper, the comparison felt wild. Croatia, a nation of just under 4 million, has punched far above its weight for nearly three decades: one World Cup final, two semi-finals, a conveyor belt of elite talent. Hong Kong, with a population of around 7 million, sits at No 156 in the world rankings and remains nowhere near a World Cup, even with the tournament ballooning to 64 teams.

Yet the idea lingered. If Croatia can do it, why not someone else?

Now one of the architects and symbols of that Croatian miracle is stepping, at least symbolically, into Hong Kong’s football landscape. Davor Suker – the golden boot winner at France 98, the elegant finisher who lit up Real Madrid and later wore Arsenal’s colours – has been named honorary president of Hong Kong Premier League club Eastern District.

The title raised eyebrows. An all-time great of Croatian football, a former head of the Croatian Football Federation, suddenly attached to a modest club in a struggling league? Some in Hong Kong football circles were left wondering what exactly this meant, and what it might lead to.

Suker, now a Fifa ambassador and a vocal defender of president Gianni Infantino – he publicly backed the Swiss official again on Thursday – insists this isn’t as random as it looks. Across his nine years running the Croatian federation, he struck up a close relationship with Eric Fok Kai-shan and Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, the current and former chairmen of the Football Association of Hong Kong, China.

Those ties have now produced a headline: Suker, in an honorary role, connected to a Hong Kong club at a time when the territory is still searching for a way to drag its national team out of the global backwaters.

During Suker’s presidency, Croatia reached the 2018 World Cup final, losing only to France in Moscow. That run, built on a core of technically gifted, tactically astute players, reinforced the country’s reputation as a model for small nations with big ambitions.

Hong Kong has the population. It has the desire, at least in pockets of its football community. What it has lacked is a proven blueprint.

Now, with Morling’s question still echoing in the background and Suker stepping into view, the territory finds itself staring at a familiar benchmark: Croatia’s path from underdog to perennial contender. The honorary title alone will not close that gap.

But if Hong Kong really wants an answer to “why can’t that be us?”, it has just brought one of the men who lived it into the room.