Andrew James Russell (; born 21 November 1987), is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

-born

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who currently plays as a centre back for Hong Kong Premier League club

Kitchee Kitchee Sports Club (; ; ) is a Hong Kong professional Association football, football club based in Kowloon. It was founded in 1931 and currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. The club has won championships in Hong Kong 11 times, in ...

. He also plays for the Hong Kong national team.

Club career

In 2008, Russell signed his first contract as a professional footballer for Happy Valley, which played in

Hong Kong First Division The Hong Kong First Division League () is the second-highest division in the Hong Kong football league system. Established in 1908, it is the third oldest in Asia. The league was formerly the highest division in Hong Kong until the formation o ...

. After returning to the UK, Russell joined

Mossley Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, southeast of Oldham and east of Manchester. The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshire ...

in the NPL First Division North and found employment with sportswear giants

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

. In his debut season with the club he would represent them 46 times and score two goals. He joined

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...

in 2010 when manager

Garry Flitcroft Garry William Flitcroft (born 6 November 1972) is an English football manager and former professional player who played as a midfielder. Between 1991 and 2006, Flitcroft spent four seasons in the Premier League with Manchester City, winning t ...

took over. For the 2013–14 season, Russell chose

AFC Fylde AFC Fylde is a professional football club based in Wesham in the Borough of Fylde, Lancashire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Mill Farm. Originally known as Kirkham & Wesham following a merger of Kirkham Town and Wes ...

after being convinced by manager

Dave Challinor David Paul Challinor (born 2 October 1975) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back in the Football League for Tranmere Rovers, Stockport County and Bury. He is the manager of club Stockport C ...

. He helped the club retain the

Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy The Lancashire Football Association Challenge Trophy is an English football competition for senior non-league clubs who are members of the Lancashire County Football Association. The trophy was first played for in 1885, when it was known as the L ...

by beating Chorley 4–1 with one goal and one assist. In July 2014, Russell announced on his Twitter account that he had signed for Hong Kong Premier League club

South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

for the 2014–15 season. On 7 January 2017, Russell left South China for Malaysian Super League club

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

after signing a one-year contract with the club. In May 2017, Russell's contract with Penang was terminated due to poor performances. On 27 February 2018, Russell left Tai Po, where he had played the previous half-year, for

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

club

Liaoning Whowin Liaoning Football Club (), officially known as Liaoning Hongyun (), was a professional association football club with a long history in Chinese football. The club can predate their formation to 1953, when Shenyang government sports body joined ex ...

at a six figure fee, where he could play as a native player. On 25 February 2019, Russell signed with

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

club

Hebei China Fortune Hebei Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that participates in the Chinese Super League division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Langfang, Hebei and their home stadium is the La ...

. On 16 July 2020, Russell joined

club

Jiangxi Liansheng Jiangxi Beidamen Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League One division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team was founded in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and thei ...

on loan. In April 2021, Russell joined Jiangxi Beidamen. In April 2022, Russell joined

Sichuan Jiuniu Sichuan Jiuniu Football Club (Simplified Chinese: 四川九牛足球俱乐部) is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League One division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The tea ...

. On 8 February 2023, Russell returned to Hong Kong and joined

International career

On 14 March 2016, Russell received his first call-up for

in preparation for the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

match against

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

on 24 March 2016. He made his international debut in a 2–0 loss to Qatar.

Personal life

Russell was born in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, England and moved to

with his parents when he was 18 months old. He returned to England to attend the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. Russell married his wife Helen in 2018. The couple has a son named Zachary.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Kitchee * Hong Kong Premier League: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

* Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield:

Hong Kong FA Cup Hong Kong FA Cup () is a knockout cup competition in Hong Kong football, run by and named after The Hong Kong Football Association. The first edition of the competition was held in 1975, before then the cup was known as the Golden Jubilee Cup. Th ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Andy 1987 births Living people Hong Kong men's footballers Hong Kong men's international footballers English men's footballers Footballers from Southampton English emigrants to Hong Kong Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong Happy Valley AA players Mossley A.F.C. players Chorley F.C. players AFC Fylde players South China AA players Tai Po FC players Liaoning F.C. players Hebei F.C. players Jiangxi Lushan F.C. players Sichuan Jiuniu F.C. players Kitchee SC players Hong Kong First Division League players Hong Kong Premier League players Malaysia Super League players China League One players Chinese Super League players Men's association football defenders Men's association football central defenders Naturalised footballers of Hong Kong Hong Kong expatriate men's footballers Hong Kong expatriate sportspeople in China Hong Kong League XI representative players