Lai Yiu Cheong (; born 25 September 1988) is a former

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 played as a

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Rangers

Lai Yiu Cheong made his

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 ...

debut in the 2006–07 season. On 29 September 2006, Lai Yiu Cheong earned a place in the match squad list in the match against

HKFC Hong Kong Football Club (HKFC; ), established in 1886, is a private members' club in Hong Kong. The name reflects the origin as a club for playing association football and rugby. The club is situated in Happy Valley, with the sports pitche ...

, but was an unused substitute player. Then, he finally made his first division league debut on 18 November 2006, in a match against

Tai Po Tai Po is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui () (the original "Tai Po Market") on the north of Lam Tsue ...

, being substituted 3 minutes before the end of the match. He finally had three league appearances and played one match in

Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the football knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the fourth oldest football tournament in Asia. Traditionally, only the teams in the Hong Kong Pr ...

and

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 ...

, respectively. In the 2007–08 season, Lai Yiu Cheong got a lot more chances. He made 8 league appearances, although he was only a usual substitute in the team. For cup games, he played 3

Hong Kong League Cup Hong Kong Football Association League Cup () is an annual football competition contested by clubs in the top-tier Hong Kong domestic football league (currently Hong Kong Premier League). The cup was relaunched for the 2014–15 season after being ...

games and 1

match. However, he could not help the team to stay in the First Division.

Fourway

After spending 2 seasons in Rangers, he followed former Rangers club director Lee Fai Lap and joined the newly formed club Fourway in the beginning of the 2008–09 season. He scored his first

first division league 1st Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoured Division (Austra ...

goal in the match against

Tuen Mun Progoal Tuen Mun Progoal Football Club () was a Hong Kong football club which played in the Hong Kong First Division League in the 2008–09 and 2009–10 season. It borrowed the entities of Shek Kip Mei to compete in the league. Match-fixing controversy ...

on 31 October 2008. He made 9 league appearances and played 3

matches. He then eventually left the club in January 2009.

Pegasus

Lai Yiu Cheong joined

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

in January 2009. He was given the kit number 26. He had been an important player since his transfer to the club. He made 11 league appearances and scored 2 goals in his first season in Pegasus. In the 2009–10 season, Lai Yiu Cheong made a total of 18 appearances, including 14 league games, 2

Senior Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the Association football, football Single-elimination tournament, knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the List of oldest football competitions, fo ...

games and 2

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

games. He scored only one goal for the team in the season, which was the winning goal for the team against Tai Po on 20 February 2010. He helped the team to win a place for the

2011 AFC Cup The 2011 AFC Cup was the eighth edition of the AFC Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "developing countries" in Asia. Allocation of entries per association *2 teams to qualify from each ...

group stage. In the 2010–11 season he played many matches for the team. He played 14 league games and scored 1 league goal. The goal was scored in the home game against

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 ...

on 22 April 2011. However, the goal did not help the team to win the game, being defeated 2—3. He featured all 6

AFC Cup The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Under its current rules, the competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying s ...

group stage matches for the team and scored 2 goals. However, the team did not qualify to the knock-out stage.

Tuen Mun

On 13 June 2012, Lai Yiu Cheong joined

Tuen Mun Tuen Mun or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the more re ...

Sun Hei

On 1 January 2014, Rangers director Philip Lee announced that Lai would join

Sun Hei Sun Hei Sports Club () is a Hong Kong football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong Third Division. The club has a long history in playing in the top flight, but decided to self-relegate in the 2013–14 season after declining to parti ...

on loan after being released by

Lee Man

On 3 July 2017, Lai moved to Lee Man. He signed with the club following

Lee & Man Paper Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Limited () is a Hong Kong-listed Chinese private papermaking company engaged in the manufacturing of packaging paper, such as linerboard and containerboard, and wood pulp. It has paper production plants in Guangdo ...

's decision to withdraw their sponsorship with Rangers and form their own HKPL club. On 24 January 2018,

Yuen Long Yuen Long is a town in the western New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu (), Tin Shui Wai, Lau Fau Shan and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin (), and to the north Nam Sang W ...

acquired Lai on loan for the remainder of the 2017–18 season. He scored one goal in two appearances during his loan spell. Lai left the club after the end of the 2018–19 season.

Honours

Club

;Lee Man *

Hong Kong Sapling Cup Hong Kong Football Association Sapling Cup (), more commonly known as Sapling Cup (), is a Hong Kong domestic football competition contested by all the teams in the Hong Kong Premier League. The objective of the Cup is to provide more playing opp ...

: 2018–19

International

;Hong Kong *

East Asian Games The East Asian Games was a multi-sport event organized by the East Asian Games Association (EAGA) and held every four years from 1993 to 2013. Among those who competed included athletes from East Asian countries and territories of the Olympic C ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Hong Kong

:''As of 7 January 2011''

Hong Kong U-23

:''As of 4 December 2010''

Personal life

On 29 May 2018, Lai married his girlfriend of ten years, Yuki.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lai, Yiu Cheong Hong Kong men's footballers Hong Kong First Division League players Hong Kong Premier League players Metro Gallery FC players Hong Kong Pegasus FC players 1988 births Living people Hong Kong men's international footballers Hong Kong Rangers FC players Tuen Mun SA players South China AA players Sun Hei SC players Lee Man FC players Yuen Long FC players Footballers at the 2010 Asian Games Men's association football wingers Asian Games competitors for Hong Kong