Keisuke Honda to pursue footballing career in Cambodia

Keisuke Honda was surprisingly unveiled as the new General Manager of the Cambodia national team in a press conference held today by the Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC).

The Japanese superstar has just recently signed for Melbourne Victory and will play in the A-League in the upcoming season – so it seems a bizarre move for the 32-year-old.

This means that Honda will be the one guiding Cambodia at the upcoming 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup tournament where they are in the same group as Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos.

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Melbourne Victory were quick to assure fans that their star signing would not miss A-League matches, being available to Cambodia only when the competition paused for FIFA-sanctioned international dates.

The Japan World Cup star was reportedly expected to oversee the Cambodia team’s campaign in South East Asia’s 10-team AFF Suzuki Cup tournament, which runs between November 8 and December 15

How exactly he would go about that was unclear although A-League.com said it understood Honda would hold a video conference once a week with the Cambodian team and staff from his Melbourne base.

A Victory spokesman said the club was aware and supportive of Honda’s negotiations with Cambodia when they signed him.

Honda has a wealth of experience having played in several World Cups as well as wearing the colours of AC Milan, CSKA Moscow and Nagoya Grampus Eight.

This is not Honda’s first affiliation with Cambodian football, having opened a football academy in Phnom Penh back in 2016.

In the press conference, the FFC also classed this capture of Honda’s service as one that will help them in the 2023 football competition in the Southeast Asian Games that will be held in Cambodia.

with Goal/AAP