Hong Kong new boy rewarded for 8-year gamble, shares heartbreak over war in Ukraine
Advertisement
After arriving in the city to join Biu Chun Glory Sky in November 2016, Ukraine-born Shliakotin 'fell in love with the best place in the world'.
Within a year, he had resolved to qualify as a local and represent Hong Kong. His choice meant that, as a foreign goalkeeper competing with outfielders for overseas spots, Shliakotin had to accept limited club football for the rest of his seven-year qualification period.
'I knew it wouldn't be easy,' the BC Rangers No 1 said. 'My long-term plan was to use the time when I knew I wouldn't play all the matches to set up businesses for after my career.
'I wanted them operating without my involvement by the time I had my passport.'
Oleksiy Shliakotin has waited patiently for his opportunity with the representative side. Photo: @JACK.8th
Shliakotin has launched successful coaching and goalkeeper glove enterprises and, at the age of 35, can focus on football.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
25 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
The Front Line: taking stock of China's military modernisation
The Front Line: taking stock of China's military modernisation China is on its way to becoming a military superpower as the People's Liberation Army barrels ahead with an ambitious modernisation drive. Its progress will be seen during a huge military parade on September 3, when some of the PLA's latest weaponry rolls through the heart of Beijing. In this series, we take a look at how far China's military has come.
South China Morning Post
34 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
European leaders breathe sigh of relief, but doubts linger over Trump's pledges to Ukraine
European leaders left Washington on Monday with a palpable sense of relief, having avoided a breakdown with Donald Trump over Ukraine – but in the cold light of day, doubts are growing over the substance of the 'breakthroughs' they claimed. After meetings with Trump that bordered on the obsequious, eight European leaders – including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – trumpeted the trip as a success. 'This was the best of our meetings,' Zelensky said. 'I was able to show many things, even on the map, to all American colleagues regarding the situation on the battlefield.' German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: 'My expectations have not only been met, but exceeded … it could have turned out differently.' The Europeans pointed to a US openness to security guarantees for Ukraine and progress towards a bilateral summit between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin , which Merz said could happen in the next two weeks. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted Trump's support for returning the thousands of Ukrainian children captured by Russian forces since the start of the war, thanking him 'for his clear commitment today to ensuring these children are reunited with their loved ones.'
South China Morning Post
39 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Tech war: Chinese EDA leader Empyrean announces breakthroughs in chip design software
China's top semiconductor design software developer Empyrean Technology said it has made breakthroughs in design tools for memory chips and panel displays, as part of its long-term goal to 'fully replace foreign products' amid the ongoing US-China tech war. For memory chip design, Empyrean added a 'clone group' function to the layout editor, which helps 'quickly and accurately complete the layout design of identical units' as memory devices contain arrays of storage modules, according to a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange over the weekend. Its simulation tool for memory chips was powered by artificial intelligence, which enables accurate simulation of high-yield circuits with a 'smaller number' of tests, it said. Both innovations were launched in the first half of the year, when Empyrean also introduced an 'intelligent and automated' platform for panel display design, used to control the pixel layout on a flat screen. The new system, which uses AI algorithms to replace human work, is being rolled out to major panel manufacturers in China 'on a large scale', the company said. The progress provides fresh evidence of how China is slowly moving towards self-sufficiency in critical areas such as electronic design automation (EDA) for chip design and operating systems. Huawei Technologies is set to open-source its software toolkit used to develop applications on its Ascend AI processors as it tries to compete with Nvidia's proprietary Compute Unified Device Architecture, or CUDA, toolkit The new simulation tool for memory chips is powered by artificial intelligence. Photo: Shutterstock Images Beijing-based Empyrean also launched six other new software tools to facilitate the design of digital circuits, analogue circuits and three-dimensional integrated circuits.
