Manchester City legend David Silva has opted to come out of retirement to make the strange move of joining Supreme Sha Tin in Hong Kong.
Silva hung up his boots in 2023 after suffering a knee injury in pre-season with Real Sociedad, but the now 40-year-old appeared on the club’s social media to express his excitement at joining the Hong Kong Premier League club.
“I am delighted to join Supreme Sha Tin,” Silva said.
“I’m really looking forward to going to Hong Kong to enjoy the culture, the people, and the food in Sha Tin — and the football in Hong Kong, of course.”
You may have read this far and asked yourself the very fair question of “why”? And to be honest, we have no idea either.
The club is owned by Jim Wong Chi-chuen who is pleasingly fulfilling the rarely seen player-owner role and they are not even one of the top teams in the division.
Their promotion last year means this season is their first top-flight campaign since 2009-10. They are managed by Englishman Tom Ballantyne whose previous job was Devonport City Strikers in Tasmania.
Perhaps Silva spotted that this league was also called the Premier League and fancied some new medals in case his old ones were suddenly null and void or maybe the owner promised him a large contract for a short stint.
Wong has been ambitious since taking over the club three years ago and the managing director of Live Nation Asia has previously stated he has put over half a million dollars of his own money into the club to help them rise from the third division to the top.
Silva is on his way to Hong Kong and could make his debut against Hong Kong FC on October 18.
Silva played 436 times for City, providing over 200 goal contributions in that time. He also won four Premier Leagues and two FA Cups, although he may fancy a crack at the National League North.
Picture the scenes: the playmaker bewitching the Buxton defence, trebling the gate at Chorley and enjoying a pre-match stroll around Merthyr, the ‘Iron Capital of the World’.
He left City in 2020 after 10 years at the club to return to Spain and joined Real Sociedad. There he played for three seasons and won the Copa del Rey before retiring after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
That prompted him to call it a day in a career which also included two Euros and a World Cup with Spain.
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