As Taiwan’s top soccer divisions wrapped up the season, AC Taipei’s teenage star Huang Wei-chieh became the youngest player to win the Golden Boot award, while Taiwan Steel Group (TSG) and Taichung Blue Whale received the championship trophies for the men’s and women’s leagues respectively.
Tainan-based TSG dominated the Taiwan Football Premier League (TFPL) this season, winning the title for the fourth time in a row. This season they won 17 games, lost three and drew once in 21 matches, to finish on 52 points. Past league champions Taipei Leopard Cat, formerly Tatung FC, were the runners-up on 41 points, with 12 wins, four losses and five draws.
At the CTFA’s year-end function on Thursday, 18-year-old Huang basked in the attention he received from the media due to his scoring prowess for fourth-placed AC Taipei. He netted 13 goals — the most this season — to claim the Golden Boot award.
Photo: Nian Miao-yun, Taipei Times
It was quite an achievement, as the striker had only scored one goal the previous season, but this season beat more experienced veterans to the award in a league that has seen an influx of foreign-born players.
Huang was the first domestic player to win the award since 2016. In his younger days, he started out at the Andy Chen Football Academy in Taipei.
“It is very encouraging ... for me to win this award. In the past, I was still learning and honing my skills,” Huang said. “This season I wanted to contribute to AC Taipei, and gathered my courage to try different techniques and make breakthroughs on the soccer pitch.”
He confirmed that he has been receiving attention from foreign teams, and told reporters that he is to compete in trials at second and third-tier clubs in Span.
“Yes, I want to take up the challenge and open my eyes to the soccer world. If I can latch onto a suitable club there, then I would stay and play in Spain,” Huang said.
Meanwhile, TSG playmaker Ange Samuel Kouame took home the TFPL’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, while Liu Chien-yun, Taichung Blue Whale’s midfield dynamo, won the women’s MVP award.
Kouame said winning the award was very special to him, as he had recently represented Taiwan as a naturalized citizen, and his Taiwanese wife had given birth to their first child.
The Ivorian gave all the credit to the support and encouragement he received from his wife.
In the women’s league, three players received the Golden Boot, each having scored six goals. They were Lee Hsiu-chin of Kaohsiung Sunny Bank, and Chen Yen-ping and Lee Yi-wen of Hang Yuan FC.
TSG and Taiwan national team goalkeeper Pan Wen-chieh won the Golden Glove award, his fourth since 2019, for only conceding eight goals in 1,389 minutes played this season. Blue Whale’s Tsai Ming-jung took the women’s honor for giving up just eight goals in 1,170 minutes played.
Meanwhile, Vikings-PlayOne are to be promoted to the TFPL after winning the second-division title with eight victories and two losses in 10 matches played to score 24 points.
The club started out as an amateur soccer school at local parks in 2010, when Danish founder and head coach Johnni Nielsen settled in Taipei with his Taiwanese wife. It gradually evolved into the FC Vikings, and then became Vikings-PlayOne, which competed in the second tier from 2020.
There was late drama in the relegation battle on Wednesday last week, as Ming Chuan University (MCU) forward and Taiwan international player Yu Yao-hsing hammered home the winning goal with just four minutes left on the clock to ensure they prevailed 3-2 over Taoyuan Inter and remained in the top division.
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