Part of the Hong Kong Football Festival, the match on July 31 at Kai Tak Stadium marks the first-ever north London derby to be held outside the UK.
King, the club’s ambassador, said the team hopes to give SAR fans a taste of a north London derby.
He added that the team is full of young players who are hoping to kick-start a strong season.
“As players, you want to win this game,” King said. “The nerves are a part of the game and you learn how to deal with them. I always say I was nervous before my first game and my last game.
“It’s the pressure that you put on yourself to perform more than anything. We have young players, but they play a lot of football, some of them. They’re very mature kids. I don’t see any kind of fear in them in terms of their game. So, yeah, I look forward to kind of seeing how they perform in that.”
Beyond the pitch, King said that it’s always important to bring the club to the fans who don’t have an opportunity to travel abroad for their matches.
The club will host an open training session two days before the derby.
“What is important to us is making sure that we engage with our fans out there,
to make sure that we respect the culture,” he said.
“We will be having football clinics across Hong Kong while we’re out there, which gives young players the opportunity to see our style of coaching, to see how we work and hopefully that’s something that they can take forward in their young careers, if they have ambitions to play football.
“It’s something that we always take a lot of pride in, not just playing the match but making sure that we try to leave an impression wherever we go.”
The other match will be between English Premier League giant Liverpool and Serie A side AC Milan on July 26.
All four elite clubs will use the tournament to prepare for the 2025-26 season while showcasing top-tier football to fans in Hong Kong.
