The 49-year-old took charge of the SAR squad as interim boss in December, following the departure of former head coach Ashley Westwood.
Over the past six months, Losada led the team through their final AFC Asian Cup qualifying match against India, as well as the annual Guangdong-Hong Kong Cup.
Losada’s official appointment comes as the SAR squad take on Mongolia in a friendly at Hong Kong Stadium on Friday.
HKFA’s chairman Eric Fok said the association had high hopes for Losada.
“We hope the new head coach will bring a clear direction to the team, including establishing a clear style of play, strengthening tactical organisation and improving in-game stability and discipline. We also hope that under the coach’s guidance, team cohesion will be strengthened and our players will achieve a higher level of performance,” he said.
Losada, who has lived in Hong Kong for 16 years and won three Coach of the Year awards while managing local Premier League club Eastern, said he would give more chances to local young players.
“We are going to try to make our squad a little bit more dynamic, a little bit more young. We are not going to have too many naturalised players in the coming three, four years coming in for the squad, so we have to start to trust our young boys,” he said.
“Our players that have been working hard to get into the squad, and they deserve the chance. We’re going to do it a little bit steady and smooth, try to put some young boys coming up, integrate them in the team with the seniors that we have, and try in a couple of years to have a very competitive squad.”
A former professional player himself, Losada scored 27 goals in 113 appearances in Spain’s La Liga and won a Hong Kong Footballer of the Year award while playing with local Premier League club Kitchee.
Meanwhile, the HKFA also announced that Hong Kong is set to host Division 2 of the inaugural Fifa Asean Cup across the months of September and October.
The new tournament features a two-tier format, with Indonesia hosting the top-flight Division 1, and Hong Kong staging the second division, which will see six participating teams.
Fok pointed out that the event would be the first time Hong Kong hosted a Fifa-sanctioned international football tournament, saying this is of great significance to football development in the SAR.
“They are not just ordinary international friendly matches as the teams will need to compete continuously in a short period of time, facing different opponents under pressure and goals to achieve,” he said.
Fok added that since the event is scheduled during the Fifa International Match Calendar, he believes the participating teams would send more complete lineups, further raising the level of competition.
