Leslie George Santos (, born 20 July 1967) 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 was widely regarded as one of the best

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

players in Hong Kong

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

history. He is of Portuguese and British heritage.

Career

During his peak (1983–1997), Santos played for

South China Athletic Association South China Athletic Association (known simply as South China, SCAA, ) is a Hong Kong professional football club that competes in the Hong Kong First Division, the second-tier league in Hong Kong football league system. The club is historica ...

. His career was disrupted by two cruciate ligament injuries to his left knee after tearing it in the final match of the 1992-1993 season against British Forces which sidelined him for eight months, and then tearing it again during a league match against Sing Tao in 1993–1994 after a heavy tackle by

Ian Docker Ian Docker (born 12 September 1969) is an English former 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, Ameri ...

which took 3 years for rehabilitation. He was twice awarded Footballer of the year and he rounded off his career with

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 ...

. Santos took over as coach for Sun Hei in the 2008-09 Hong Kong League Cup and took them to victory in the final over

TSW Pegasus FC Hong Kong Pegasus FC () are a Hong Kong football club based in Yuen Long. Founded in 2008, the club currently competes in the Hong Kong Third Division. History TSW Pegasus was established in June 2008, and they had their first season in 2008� ...

where they won 6:4 on penalties after the match finished 2:2, thus ending his coaching career in glory. Santos was award Best Coach of the Year for this victory. Santos was surprised by the award because he only coached for a short time.

Retirement

He is now a columnist for the

Oriental Daily ''Oriental Daily News'' is a Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. It was established in 1969 by Ma Sik-yu and Ma Sik-chun, and was one of the two newspapers published by the Oriental Press Group Limited (). Relative to other Hong Kong ne ...

newspaper and runs his own soccer academy named after himself, known as Santos Soccer Training Limited Hong Kong. In December 2009, the school reached a long term agreement with ChelseaFC in 2009 to develop its first ever Soccer School in Asia to provide football and charity opportunities to children. The school is now known as ChelseaFC Soccer School (HK). It is based in

Lam Tin Lam Tin is an area in the Kwun Tong District in southeastern New Kowloon, Hong Kong. Lam Tin is primarily a residential area but also hosts a major transport interchange and several shopping attractions. Lam Tin was once a large field in the ...

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...

with its own Blue Pitch training ground. They also have a new campus in

Kwun Tong Kwun Tong is an area in the Kwun Tong District of Hong Kong, situated at the eastern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, and its boundary stretches from Lion Rock in the north to Lei Yue Mun in the south, and from the winding paths of Kowloon ...

. In 2020, Leslie Santos was interviewed by the South China Morning Post to speak about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on his Soccer School.

Personal life

Santos is married and on 29 August 2010, his wife gave birth to a daughter. This was his second daughter.足球山度士又做老竇
Apple Daily. 30 August 2011.

References

External links

HK football – Interview with Leslie Santos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Leslie Hong Kong footballers Hong Kong international footballers Hong Kong football managers 1967 births Living people Association football midfielders South China AA players Hong Kong people of Portuguese descent Sun Hei SC players Hong Kong First Division League players Hong Kong people of British descent