Butt ready to play for Hong Kong club
Published Nov 29 2010
Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy, left, and Nicky Butt celebrate after the opening goal against Arsenal, during their FA Premier League match at Highbury, London Wednesday April 16, 2003.
Former Manchester United and Newcastle midfielder Nicky Butt says he is looking forward to playing for Hong Kong league club South China in a tryout game on Tuesday. The 35-year-old former England international said that he and the club will make a decision about his future sometime over the next few days.
Butt arrived in Hong Kong on Monday and will spend at least a week training with the team and playing in the first division game against local club TSW Pegasus at Hong Kong Stadium. "I'm very excited to come over to South China to play football," Butt told reporters during a photo session to unveil his No. 12 jersey. "I've experienced a lot of things in my football career, I've had a lot of highs. Hopefully this will be another one."
Butt came up through the youth ranks at Manchester United and helped the club win a string of Premier League titles along with the 1999 Champions League in a memorable final against Bayern Munich in Barcelona. However, he struggled to secure a regular first-team start and eventually moved to Newcastle in 2004.
On the international stage, his best performances for England came as a holding midfielder at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where Sven Goran Eriksson's side reached the quarterfinals before bowing out to Brazil. Despite announcing his retirement earlier this year, he responded to a call from South China's chairman Steven Lo asking him to play by saying he missed the game.
Butt said he had been to Hong Kong a few times before to play and said the warm reception on those visits had made him enthusiastic about returning. "This is an exciting challenge for me," he said. "It's a new culture, it's a new place. It ticks all the boxes. I can bring my children over here and experience a new culture.
"Hopefully it'll be settled in the next two or three days," he said. Butt said he eventually wants to be a manager and that playing with South China could help him in that direction, though he didn't regard it as a stepping stone. South China is currently top of the 10-team standings. - AP
