Chow Chee Keong

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Chow Chee Keong (traditional Chinese: ) is a former football (soccer) goalkeeper who played in Hong Kong.

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[edit] Career

His nickname in Hong Kong was "Asian Stainless Steel Gate (Chinese:「亞洲鋼門」meaning number 1 keeper in Asia) and "Crazy Sword" (Chinese:「神經刀). He was a Malaysian Chinese. In 1963, he represented the Malaysian in under-20 level as a 13 years old. Two years later, he joined the Malaysia national football team as a 15 years old. At that point, he was the youngest ever Malaysian international player. From 1966 to 1970, he was voted by Asian Football Confederation as the best goalkeeper for 5 straight times. In 1968, he came to Hong Kong with a Malaysian Chinese selection side and many Hong Kong clubs took notice of him. Two years later, he joined Hong Kong Rangers FC for three guest matches. Then, he joined Jardines (Chinese name:怡和) for a salary of HKD 2500 per month which was the Hong Kong record at that time. However, a year later, Jardines withdrew from Hong Kong league. So he moved to South China AA where his career started to take off. For his three seasons with South China AA, he won many trophies and personal awards. In 1974, he moved to Tung Sing. His salary was HKD 7000 per month plus housing. In 1977, he returned to South China AA. A year later, he started to play in both Hong Kong league and the Malaysian league simultaneously. In 1979, he left Hong Kong, but returned in 1981. He spent a short time again with South China AA before moving to Hong Kong Rangers FC. In 1982, he finally returned to Malaysia and played for Malaysia national football team for three years then retired from football.

[edit] Retirement

He became a golfer after retiring from football. In 1991, he finally earned a coaching license. He first started to teach in Malaysia. In 1995, he moved to a golf club in Shenzhen, China. In 1997, he returned to South China AA as a golfing instructor.

[edit] Interesting story

In 1973, when Santos Futebol Clube visited Hong Kong to play an exhibition match against Caroline Hill. Sau Chi Keung was invited by Caroline Hill as a guest player. However, on the same day, his home club, South China AA had to play in another match across the Hong Kong Harbour. At that time, the Hong Kong Cross Harbour Tunnel was still incomplete. So Caroline hired a helicopter to bring him across the harbour so that he could play in both matches.

[edit] References

http://hk.geocities.com/hokimchung2002/