作者： Derek Currie
出版社：Blacksmith Books
出版年份：2023
語言：English
ISBN：9789887674801
 
When Scottish footballer Derek Currie was made an offer to travel to Hong Kong to play against the one sportsman he had dreamed of meeting on the field, he couldn’t say no. From apprentice printer in Glasgow to playing football against Pelé in the Far East, singing with Stevie Wonder and shadow-boxing with Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Currie enjoyed a magical life as one of the first three European professional footballers in Asia. He was quickly nicknamed ‘Jesus’ by Hong Kong football fans.
Here he traces the early development of professional football in the then-British colony through his own career: the games, the places and the characters he met along the way. Given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he didn’t think twice – travelling 6,000 miles across the world to pursue his dream of professional football. In the years that followed, he met international stars from music, showbusiness, boxing and horse racing.
 
REVIEWS
 
“The excellent read that is this autobiography makes me regret that, although I had the responsibility of the Scotland national team for nine years, I never had the opportunity to rectify the fact that a player of Derek’s ability was not the recipient of a Scotland international cap. He did get selected for Hong Kong but I’m sure a deserved accolade from the country of his birth would have been worthy acknowledgement for a man who was a fine player and a thorough gentleman.” – Craig Brown CBE, manager, Scotland national football team, 1993-2001
 
“I took the Swedish team Malmo to Hong Kong in the late ’80s for a tournament Derek had organised. Walking down the street after a game everybody seemed to say hello to ‘Jesus’. I took the Switzerland national team there in the mid ’90s and it was the same again. I never saw him play, but he has some story to tell!” – Roy Hodgson CBE, manager, England national football team, 2012-2016  
 
“If you ever walk down the streets of Hong Kong alongside Derek Currie, you’d better be prepared to stop frequently. Football fans of various ages, aunties who remember his beard and once-long hair, F&B professionals who encountered him during his time as a marketer for Carlsberg… they all excitedly stop to greet the man they affectionately call ‘Yeh-so’ (Jesus) because of his iconic look. These encounters are always filled with smiles and genuine affection for a man who symbolised a special era for Hong Kong – a time when sport and showbiz went hand in hand, when East and West met in the exotic, thriving melting pot that was 1970s and ’80s Hong Kong. And at the pulsing heart of it all was this twinkling-eyed Scotsman and adopted Hong Konger.

As someone who spent his formative years there, I was privileged to both watch Derek play football and to witness him work his magic at sporting events, press launches, race meets… all of which you will read about here. This is both a captivating story of one man’s journey from Glasgow to the Far East and a nostalgic throwback to a magical lost age in a truly unique setting.” – John Dykes, sports television anchor
 
“I first met Derek when I came out to Hong Kong for the Sevens in 1990 just after Scotland had won the Grand Slam. We thought we were the h