You know those days when you find yourself thinking “Damn, I didn’t know he played the game”…. I’ve always found it incredibly interesting who exactly has roots in our game and the back story on how it’s shaped the direction of their lives.

I was introduced to Eugene Kan, Managing Editor of Hypbeast, about a year ago through “One Degree of Jon Busch” and from the start our conversations about the game became our platform of getting to know each other.

Hit The Jump For The Full Story……

Let’s start with a little background information. Where did you grow up and how exactly did you come across the game?

I grew up in Fort Saskatchewan, a small town about 25 minutes outside of Edmonton, Canada and probably known exclusively for its ties to Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers. Not your traditional football/soccer hotbed but surprisingly enough it has yielded some good players despite the very cold climate, perhaps we can attribute it to the prominent indoor game (a debatable point). Like many, my dad got me into playing football. I still have trouble calling it football despite the fact I’ve rarely if ever heard it called soccer in Hong Kong where I live now… but it sounds weird calling it football coming out of my Canadian accented mouth. My dad is probably the biggest grass-roots fan I know and will watch any form of live football around, he’ll come to watch you train even haha. There was no way I was picking up any other sport other than football and I’m pretty sure my first organized experience came with the good ol’ PVC-pipe constructed goals as a 5 or 6 year old on a team sponsored by Dairy Queen.

From knocking the ball around and breaking PVC posts in the backyard under the watchful eye of your Dad to playing college soccer at the University of Alberta (02 – 06), that’s a pretty big jump. How’d that come about?

All through out my youth I for the most part played at the highest level possible in my youth starting at age 12 or so. I think any chance of really making a solid run at making the most of my football career hit a bit of a road bump around age 11 or 12 when I got fat and forever got banished to between the sticks as a keeper, although my dad did play keeper back in the day as well. With such a specialized position and a lack of good coaching it’s tough to get instill good fundamentals in your youth. Looking back, I’m sure I would have been a much better field player cause in general the coaching and knowledge behind outfield positions is in greater abundance when the overall infrastructure is lacking. I was also a decent outfielder as is before I was unfortunately cursed haha. Throughout my teenage years, I sort of coasted through football which was a bit unfortunate. If I had the same mindset on life and how to analyze and accomplish goals, I’m sure I could eradicate and improve on many weaknesses I had in the past before they become ingrained.

As I hit university, training and being involved 6 days a week really had me motivated to the next level and luckily I had a good enough foundation from my youth to make the team. I red-shirted my first year but maybe, just maybe had a chance to ride the bench if I wasn’t so atrocious at high balls. That was always my weakness with my coach Len Vickery (who’s been at the University of Alberta for quite some time and is still there) laying this quote on me… “You’re like a vampire, afraid of crosses”. Eventually they got better but still a weakness. And even at 5’10.5, if you can’t count great timing in aerial situations, you’re greatly limited.

Then you come to the crucial decision time in your life… Is making the jump from the college game to the pros a reality or is it time to start looking around for a “real job”? And if playing at the next level is a possibility, how did you go about finding which country / style would fit your abilities the best?

For me personally, I think after my first year and given the fact I really absolutely enjoyed playing on such a regular basis that perhaps I would dedicate my life/times during my university career to perhaps achieve something afterwards. But the case of “it’s never too late” really does come into play. There’s no way somebody can apply themselves later on their lives and expect to achieve greatness in a sport/arena that is so highly competitive. I think I knew this full-well, I’ve always been a bit of a realist and mostly quite honest to myself. EPL level never ever in my life, not even A League, but football does have an expansive market and there was an opportunity to play in Hong Kong where my family is originally from. But whether college really is that last competitive step for many, I would generally say so. Playing football as a career choice is tough no doubt and I think the wage ceiling is very low. We all know how low players are paid in the MLS etc. For example the year I played, the highest base salary was $5,000 USD/month plus bonuses and I assume living arrangements. That’s a pretty tiny amount of money relative to what a smart, college educated grad can make with a little ingenuity. But just like Hypebeast and any creative-driven industry, there’s a balance of business and creativity, money and passion. Football for many is the same, do you forgo the business aka the money for the creativity aka playing and living the dream?

But back to things in Hong Kong, I had a “Hong Kong ID” card so I was essentially considered a local so that made things a bit easier. I had two stints, my first when I was 19 and I came right after my second year of school ended in late May and I had been asked if I wanted to give things a try. About 6 months earlier I was in Hong Kong on vacation and had a quick try-out with the HK National team, more so training with them so I guess I was good enough but mind you the HK National team is ranked extremely low in the world rankings haha. I played I think 3 or 4 games with a team comprised mostly of Olympic team players that the Hong Kong Football Association had assembled since a Mainland China team had essentially folded due to managerial problems. This was 2004 I believe and it was Hong Kong’s program for their push to make it to the Olympics (doesn’t every country). I played surprisingly well and actually earned an U-23 cap with Hong Kong in a friendly against Macau. I’m not sure if staying would have been the best thing at that point especially with no university degree under my belt so I obliged when my dad told me to finish school before coming back. So that’s pretty much what I did. In 2006 after finishing school with a largely symbolic Economics degree, I came back over with hopes of playing a year or so. Things really didn’t go so well this second time around, earlier in the year I had broken my 4th/5th metacarpal for something like the 3rd or 4th time so I don’t think I was necessarily as sharp as I could have been. All in all, I finished off the season and it sort of tore me up a bit. I knew I had a rather disappointing season and thought to myself, that’s pretty much it… time to close this chapter of my life.

I always sort of wondered how things could have gone differently. What if this or that happened, what if I had the foresight at age 6 to want to play or at least try to play for a living? What if I hadn’t broken my hand for the first time when I was 15 after playing the season of my life and took two steps back after taking 3 steps forward? But then it dawned on me, there are a ton of things in life that really must develop organically. Now that I am understanding each day a little more clearly, I can’t feel angry or mad that things didn’t go my way haha. As I see it, these were beyond my control. I can’t worry about the things that are beyond my control, just put your head down and do your own thing as you know how. It’s not a hard, fast rule to life, but one that I look back and now embody. Luck/foresight are in some ways similar, I just don’t worry too much about it when it doesn’t go my way and just try to understand the situation and its underlyings.

You touched on the MLS side of things.. From your perspective, how viable was it for a college soccer player in Canada to get a solid look from a Major League Soccer team? And how was / is MLS viewed in Canada before Toronto FC’s beginnings, the supporters culture they’ve created since joining the league and more recently with the announcement of the Vancouver Whitecaps making the move in 2011?

I really don’t think that the MLS will really look towards CIS (Canada’s University Sport body) for talent. Where you go to school is usually the first barrier to entry in making it to the next level, no different than you entering the workforce for say a financial corporation that looks at your schooling background. If you’re good, you’re likely going to leave the snowy plains of Alberta to play your football in the US on a full-ride at well-known D1 school or something along those lines. Despite the fact that football is a pretty popular childhood game in Canada, think about how many actual platforms there are for one to make the next jump. One MLS team and two USL franchises, those are slim pickings. Not everybody will be that 18 year old phenom and development needs investment, timing and resources. The framework just doesn’t seem there. I’ve been removed from Canada for over 3 years so I can’t really say much about how the MLS was generally perceived in the past. I still haven’t really paid all that much attention to the MLS these days aside from the Beckham-focused stories that pop-up on the front page of Soccernet.

Edmonton had a few trys with professional football teams both indoor and outdoor on many occasions but it really didn’t work out. Your involvement with the MLS probably is a better gauge as to whether Toronto FC has been adopted as “Canada’s team” for the MLS, for now before the Whitecaps enter. Yet at the end of the day and this isn’t a new argument, the reality is that Canada is the world’s second largest political landmass with a minuscule population to boot. It’s hard developing a sense of community in some ways when you’re so disconnected from one another. The atmosphere for the “Canadian derby” between Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps will always be heavily skewed to one side with the home town fans. As we both know, football is a culture and a culture I firmly feel needs unity and numbers which Canada has difficulty bringing to the table. Hockey works cause it was the first to the party and just the sport that was generally institutionalized but there may be difficult in drawing enough fans to a new sport beyond even the other North American sports that are pretty popular including American football and pigskin. These are just largely observations I can only sort of extrapolate based on general Canadian culture, so I’m not even sure if they generally are all that accurate.

So you find yourself at the final stages of your “professional career” (which in itself is an odd situation with the amount of time you have invested and then almost like that the goal is abandoned), what direction did you find yourself heading in with regards to the “real world”?

I think it goes back to the realist aspect of me. I’m not going to lie to myself and be on a similar tip to that Major League A player that’s into his mid 30s with no future (in the sport that is). I’m just sort of happy that I found something else that was a passion unknowingly turn into something I could legitimately make a career out of. The dots connected themselves and things I was interested in could end up becoming something that could be a real career. Blogging/media may not be something I want to necessarily do forever, but the allure of the industry is ever-lasting. The creative industry does yield some great benefits from being your own boss to meeting so many great people over multiple mediums like yourself included. These are simple things you can’t fathom ever happening working a traditional job like say in a bank. Unless you start your own thing, that is everything you put into it is directly correlated to the success of your business, you should be planning an exit strategy in my opinion. Not everybody has to initiative to break the confines of their present situations and start their own thing but why work so hard to line the pockets of others? This obviously isn’t something applicable over all jobs, but mostly the creative industry haha.

Speaking of the Blogging / Media world, do you find the work ethic from your days as a professional athlete help within the confines of your job and the freedom you have at Hypebeast?

I would think that in general, certain positive attributes as a player have real-world relevance and carry-over but more so on a personality and intangible level. Obviously being the world’s best left wing-back doesn’t mean you can be the world’s best blogger haha. But I knew from the get-go, my innate talent wasn’t all that great, I wasn’t a naturally gifted athlete but I did work my sack off. In training, my goal was to find that one outfield player that you could potentially embarrass in fitness sessions haha. But overall, I think my inadequacies on the pitch actually set me up to be more successful afterwards. Not directly, but my analytical sense improved with failure (and just general maturity) and I knew what attitudes and steps were needed to get better day-in and day-out. When I was training, you’d always tell yourself “you need to be better”… yet that was probably the wrong question to ask, it was more along the lines of “how do I get better?”

There’s absolutely nothing worse than getting beat in a fitness session by a goalkeeper… You mentioned the question “How do I get better” and how you as an individual are involved daily in the creative / media / blogging world. How do you find a way to ties those two worlds together and how long did the transition period take moving into the realm you find yourself in today? Was the cultural differences for you living in Hong Kong as opposed to growing up in Canada an issue at first?

As I’ve realized probably a lot quicker thanks to leaving the “football circle”, life encompasses a lot of general themes that are very much applicable over numerous situations. Demanding the best of yourself, being self-motivated and not letting yourself be out-worked are traits of success that go beyond the pitch for sure. So the tie-ins between football and something as seemingly un-related as the creative industry definitely have parallels.

But as of late I started playing again as an outfielder, not at a good level but it’s still competitive every Sunday as I patrol the wings and up front haha. But taking on the role of an outfielder has brought on some of the most rewarding experiences to date as trivial as it sounds. The role of a keeper is a very specialized position, the game essentially only involves a GK in a pretty much pre-determined setting from his 18 yard box and probably 25 yards out. And your perspective of the game is often one-dimensional, always facing the field and never your back to the game. Keeping an open, inquisitive mind speeds up the learning process and a few games in you start to feel real comfortable. Experience really is organic and you can’t speed it up is something I learned as much as you want to. But set yourself up properly and as I said, control what you can. It didn’t take all that long to change mentalities for success I guess, it should be ingrained in you I think.

Sort of what I touched upon before, I’ve been pretty open-minded so the move from Canada to HK was quite simple. I had experience with Hong Kong on a few occasions on family vacations etc so it wasn’t a big deal at all. It’s been over three years in Hong Kong and slowly the cultural differences have perhaps been magnified and made me really loathe the place to a certain extent. The money-driven culture is unnerving given my industry where the attempts to buy culture over art, fashion etc is largely fruitless. Money has a role in life yet in Hong Kong’s society it is largely the number one determinant to success and one of the most important things… it really highlights the statement “the things people do for money…”

It seems as if the “Street / Urban” culture has gone from underground to incredibly saturated. Could soccer culture ever have the same path in your opinion?

I think that there are a few different things that make this comparison different and difficult. I find that street/urban culture as you put it was often the benefactor of marketing dollars cause companies found something worth making a fuss over with the “state of mind” and mentality that many of these street level brands, artists, retailers etc all shared. However, football/soccer is something very different. But where I become more unclear is the labeling of “soccer culture”. For me, the culture of soccer was simply going out to train and play, keeping tabs on games once in awhile and that was about it. Like I said, I’ve been far removed from what semblance of soccer culture I had, yet I’m sure what has been going on for many years around the world in other countries has a strong case in North America as it gets big and popular, that’s a given. Getting together for soccer/football-related events will surely rise and its from there that I find that things can really grow and emerge from a grassroots level. You need that community, supporting, interacting and making things happen to make a strong case.

But in terms of football and soccer culture getting incredibly popular and saturated, that’s actually a pretty interesting relationship. You’re comparing sports vs. fashion and a relevant case study involves the realm of skateboarding. While yes, some people are cashing in on skating I think most will agree that with the influx of this “over-saturation” came also more funding and support. Yeah you still have your flakes entering for the wrong reasons, but these big corporations are also investing money into riders as well. But then again, there was a certain aesthetic and state of mind that was sort of enticing to corporations. I don’t think football/soccer really has that. There is no particular fashion aesthetic to football that is directly linkable nor is there a sort of rebellious/street level approach that seemed to really interest these huge corporations.

I’ve heard of huge revivals in football-related fashion back in the UK thanks to movies that seem to bring to light hooliganism in a light many find interesting. I think that football-related brands have room for development. To my knowledge only a few exist and even less good ones like The Bumpy Pitch haha. But for me, it is a difficult theme to work with. Typically the sporting and uniform aspect leaves you pretty restricted in your themes in my opinion.

I think I sort of struggled to answer this question, maybe cause I don’t exactly know what soccer culture is or maybe that I’m still on the fence as to whether it will degenerate into something really saturated and popular for the wrong reasons.

We’re starting to see more and more “collaborations” between brands and companies / stores that are utilizing styles of shoes that have been historically been used to play the game… What makes styles like say the Samba so easy to utilize?

It’s cause companies are running out of models to retro haha… nah I think there’s a little more background behind the use of traditional soccer shoes in a more lifestyle format. Just off the top of my head, the Samba as you mentioned as well as the Tiempo have both made in-roads beyond their usual appearance on the football stage into more lifestyle offerings. It’s also sort of interesting, the slim profiles seem to lend well to biking as they fit well inside the cages. But in addition to the actual properties of these shoes, I think that given the current economic climate, these shoes are cheap, affordable and fit the bill for the current market’s preferences towards simple shoes. Cheaper models and companies like Vans have benefited from the current economic downturn… I can’t say they’re making mad money, but they should fair a bit better than their more expensive sneaker brethren.

Speaking of biking and brands, you were a part of a pretty incredible collaboration with adidas… How did that come about and how was it creating something from scratch with a brand like that?

The collaboration originally came about when Andy Chiu who at the time was with adidas (he’s now gone on to Puma) approached us with this concept. He wanted to combine what he perceived as the front-runners in our respective industries together in one project that involved both ourselves and bike-makers Bianchi. We actually had little to do in the actual development of the shoe and really only picked the colorways. Entering the project, I had some skepticism regarding our involvement. I’ll be perfectly candid, Hypebeast and the fixed gear world/culture aren’t all that directly related. We do appreciate the culture, but living in Hong Kong, none of us really have a chance to ride a fixed gear. Hong Kong’s not a rider friendly city by any means haha.

While I do come across as a bit negative, don’t get me wrong I loved doing the project. The ability to collaborate with a big company like adidas was awesome and a lot of fun. Tons of things were learned and it will hopefully carry over in the future. Not necessarily on a collaboration level, but just a business level working with big companies.

Definitely going to heed that advice about not getting on a bike in Hong Kong…. What’s been the perception of Hong Kong business man Carson Yeung’s takeover of English Premiership side Birmingham City?

I really don’t have a strong opinion of his move into the EPL. But I do have some reservations/questions about his motives and what effect it has on Hong Kong’s footballing landscape. Awhile back Carson brought in Steve McManaman into Hong Kong, not as a player but just a friend to check stuff out and that was a relatively big deal.

But back to him taking a stake in Birmingham, Hong Kong and largely Chinese culture from what I’ve experienced is pretty money-driven and there seems to be an innate desire to buy culture or buy into something. Hong Kong, handsdown from a cultural perspective is about throwing the most expensive thing together regardless of synergy, like mashing a square peg in a round hole. You see kids here throw on the most expensive un-cohesive fits ever, each piece’s logo battling for a stake to be visible on one’s body haha. But when money is involved, it does foster passion to a degree. I swear Hong Kongers put in the most hardcore hours ever gambling, like grandmas and housewives putting in arduous 10 hour or overnight Mah Jong (a Chinese/Asian tile game) sessions cause money’s on the line. But where it becomes murky after mentioning this cultural and societal background, is what effect with Yeung’s involvement affect the local football scene. As I mentioned, Hong Kong culture on the whole is money-driven. Few kids get into sports (a LOT of skinny fat people around here haha) cause they’re too busy going to fifty different tutors and on a regimented path towards a success in your prototypical money-making industry such as finance/medicine/engineering etc. There’s no way in hell an educated person will ever go the route of football in Hong Kong, the money’s terrible, the distractions are in abundance (I swear the largest per capita population of Nintendo DSs and PSPs) and the local developmental infrastructure for football just isn’t there… and it all comes back to the issue of money.

Just recently, somebody who I played with in the past briefly on the Olympic team got the chance to go to Tottenham on a 10-day trial. Largely symbolic, maybe this will bring forth some good news in the future. But I’m still pessimistic, Hong Kong is what it is, a FINANCIAL hub, so making the change towards more focuses on professional sports is close to impossible. But speaking with a friend who still plays in the 1st Division, I think he was pretty excited to see things go down and highlight the local league. I could probably go on for days about what’s wrong with Hong Kong on a cultural level but I’ll leave it at that.

Nothing says seriousness like Steve McManaman! With Soccer not having the legs in the United States like it does in the rest of the world, do you see sites like Twitter becoming more and more important to spreading the game worldwide? As well as the culture?

On the topic of Carson Leung… Dude be going straight HK_Style and balling out of control…. hahahaha. I think for any movement or sub-culture it needs a solid community and Twitter offers that. You can connect so easily and candidly in addition to conversing with a growing list of professionals like Darren Bent or the fake Adebayor who have joined the movement. Creating icons and friends will pay for itself in the long run. Things can also spread so virally, it really helps things a lot. A great example is when The Original Winger posts match highlights, all it takes is one press for me to Re-tweet it and disseminate the latest highlights. By making something ultra convenient, those who are casual fans or simply lazy can’t get their info quickly and easily. In the past, it would be difficult to follow some leagues at times cause highlights often required some legwork but those days are gone. In addition, with the hash-marks/trending topics, you can have a few different traveling fans come together at upcoming games and hang-out together for example “Meet me by South Entrance #AztecaUSAQualifier“. I can’t be concrete and say that this will blow things up but it can’t hurt.

You know you’re representing HARD when you’re rocking a Brown Bear Coat!! Alright, gotta end with a couple quick hits…

1. Number one spot to grab a bite to eat in Hong Kong
2. The first pair of boots you reach for when heading out to play
3. How long exactly does it take for a keeper’s gloves to go stanky
4. Worst seat to end up in on a long flight
5. Most overrated European Club right now

Thanks a lot for the opportunity once again Brian, this was a real pleasure. Definitely different than my usual fashion/streetwear related ones haha.

1. Number one spot to grab a bite to eat in Hong Kong
Personally, I can’t go wrong with Hong Kong-style fast food in Tsui Wah… but most people might think it’s too dirty and even then Tsui Wah is considered a little more upper scale for “cha chaan tengs”
2. The first pair of boots you reach for when heading out to play
I have nothing set in stone right now, but I think that the Predator X will be them…
3. How long exactly does it take for a keeper’s gloves to go stanky
My gloves never really stunk cause I always made sure I washed them in the showers post-game and made sure they dried out properly.
4. Worst seat to end up in on a long flight
The one next to me? I take up mad room cause of my shoulders and for sure I’ll be the first on the armrest haha.
5. Most overrated European Club right now
Going through my RSS Reader I noticed Real Madrid couldn’t overcome their 4-0 deficit in the first-leg of the Copa Del Ray against… no point remembering their name cause I’ll never hear about them again… but yeah even before this shocker I think Real Madrid were by far the most overrated.