James Ha

Early career

Ha had started playing for reserves matches of Kitchee since joining Kitchee academy in 2007. He left Kitchee academy to Shatin when he was 16, but he had no debut in the club. Ha entered Fourway Athletics a year later but did not have much success. He joined HKFC before the 2010–11 season of Hong Kong First Division League. On 4 September 2010, He made his first division debut in the opening match of HKFC which drew Tai Po 1–1. In the League Cup game on 8 January 2011, he scored his first goal in formal match on the 19th-minute and Hong Kong FC defeated NT Realty Wofoo Tai Po by 2–1 lastly. In January 2011, Kitchee signed Ha with a 1.5-year-long contract after dealing with Hong Kong FC, but Ha would continue to play in Hong Kong FC until the end of the 2010–11 season.

Kitchee

While Ha was playing in the youth tournament Mediterranean Cup as a member of Kitchee's youth academy in Spain in April 2011, Paraguayan club Guaraní approached him about playing for them in the Paraguayan Primera Division. But he concerned about playing so far away from home and rejected the offer finally. The first appearance of Ha in Kitchee is the training match against Hong Kong national football team in Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground on 16 July 2011 for Kitchee and Hong Kong prepared 2011 Barclays Asia Trophy and 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification. His first formal appearance is in a semifinal match of the 2011 Barclays Asia Trophy against Chelsea in Hong Kong Stadium on…

2010–11

In 2010, the Hong Kong Football Association decided to play Ha in an age group above his age. Ha was just 17 when he played for the Hong Kong national under-23 football team at the exhibition matches against Guangdong under-23 team in 2010. His outstanding performance in those two exhibition matches gave rise to that he can be the regular player of Hong Kong under-23 team. Ha was called up to the under-23 squad for the first formal game for their friendly against Chinese Taipei on 24 January 2011. He scored his under-23 international goal in the match two days later against Chinese Taipei too. For the first preliminary round of 2012 Summer Olympics against Maldives, he was sent to the field by head coach Tsang Wai Chung both two matches and he scored a total of four goals.

He was also named in the under-23 list squad for second preliminary round of 2012 Summer Olympics against Uzbekistan, but did not feature in the first leg at the Uzbek stadium, which lost by a goal. Before the second leg, some media in Hong Kong claimed that Ha was the 'secret weapon' of Hong Kong team. In the second leg, Hong Kong astonishingly opted defending formation and caused two losing goals to put Uzbekistan 2–0 up in 20 minutes. Ha replaced Au Yeung Yiu Chung in 34th-minute as winger and played as target man in second half. However, in a match in which Hong Kong was generally regarded as having underachieved and Uzbekistan won 3–0 on aggregate, he was widely considered one of the…

Ha was born in Middlesbrough, England in 1992 to a family of English and Hong Kong heritage. Ha moved to Hong Kong where his father resided and grew up on Hong Kong Island at an early age. Ha reportedly had always taken an interest in football, ever since a young age. He attended The Salvation Army Ann Wyllie Memorial School for primary education. And for high school education he attended St. Joseph's College for two years, but later transferred to St. Joan of Arc, but not for long. As Ha decided it was best to start year 12 at South Island School in 2009, in which he represented the school team as an attacking midfielder. During these years he was also selected by Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation football team for the 36th Asian Schools Football Championship.

Individual

Best Youth Player: 2010–11