First Steps Towards Hong Kong
Shliakotin was open and transparent on why he came to Hong Kong. He felt he needed a change in his life and career and wanted to make a transition.
“Before I came to Hong Kong, I had quite a tough time in my life and my career. My last two clubs didn’t pay salaries for half a year so this was quite unpleasant to be in this kind of situation and it was getting to the point where I was like; “Okay, I need to change my life drastically!”
When Shliakotin brought his one-way ticket, he had never been to Hong Kong before and was not even sure why he selected the destination as he knew no one at all in HK. Maybe it was all fate and destiny?
“I’m not sure why I made the decision to come to Hong Kong! I just bought a one-way ticket and just came to HK out of nowhere. I know it’s like an unconventional decision because I didn’t have any agent here. I didn’t know anyone here!”
ChungKing Mansions Is the Start
Shliakotin’s decision to journey into the unknown meant that he stayed for a little while in the infamous ChungKing Mansions to get his bearings; though he knew that he had the work ethic and attitude to make something out of himself.
“Okay, that’s how I ended up in Hong Kong. I was sure that my abilities were good enough and I wanted to move to another place, to try something completely new, in a completely new country. I was thinking about Asia. Why did I choose Hong Kong? Absolutely no idea! Just one decision!”
Shliakotin has no regrets and loves HK and considers it to be his home now.
“I’m absolutely in love with Hong Kong and I think it’s the best place in the world. I’m just amazed how I chose Hong Kong out of nowhere. That was the best decision of my life.”
Shliakotin is not some naive ‘babe in the woods’ who decided on a whim, by spinning the globe and stopping it with his finger, to move to HK; he did his research and even though there are / were limited spaces for foreigner players in HK, he still decided it was worth a shot. He also thanks and praised Rangers supremo, Philip Lee, for giving him a chance.
“First of all, I checked on Transfer Market, because I’m a goalkeeper. A goalkeeper’s chances are pretty limited. It’s pretty tough because of the limits for the position as a goalkeeper cannot play everywhere.
Even now in my situation in the HKPL, it’s really tough to be a goalkeeper as a foreigner because you don’t compete with just goalkeepers; you compete with the strikers and defenders for the foreign spots.
So therefore, in many, many countries, they don’t even consider foreign goalkeepers. I checked on the transfer market back in 2016. There were only a few foreign goalkeepers playing in Hong Kong so I thought it was possible.
Secondly, I wanted to get to a country that had high living standards. Yeah, so that’s why I think I chose Hong Kong, but obviously I haven’t been here before. It was a completely blind decision!”
Aleks Shliakotin: “Patience, Hard Work and Consistency Will Get You to the Top”
https://www.offside.hk/uncategorized/aleks-shliakotin-patience-hard-work-and-consistency-will-get-you-to-the-top/