#2 World Cup 2022: Poloniex X Peter, the “golden-mouth” football pundit in Hong Kong

#2 World Cup 2022: Peter Wong, the “golden-mouth” football pundit in HK

In the previous article, Peter Wong, the most entertaining football pundit in Hong Kong, shared his views on the Qatar World Cup and Fan Tokens with Poloniex. In this article, Peter shared a bit of his personal life with us.

Little did we know that Peter, who is a barrel of laughs in everyone’s eyes, has faced two tragedies in life, which completely changed his life.

Behind the smiling face

“As long as it is not about cancer or death, I basically accept any ups and downs in life,” said Peter when he recalled the several tragedies he experienced in his life.

Born and raised in an affluent family, Peter is free of worries and stress. But, behind the smiling face, Peter has lamented over the death of his father, Wong Ying-Kau, one of the victims from the shocking criminal case, “Three Wolves Case”, in Hong Kong in the late 1950s.

The tragedy happened when he was 15 years old and he felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders as the eldest son of the Wong’s family.

“The kidnappers sent a parcel with a severed ear and demanded a huge ransom for the return of my dad,” Peter recalled as the family was shrouded in an atmosphere of misery back then.

“My dad was killed at that time, but we didn’t know that, we still had a ray of hope and one of the kidnappers was our relatives,” Peter continued.

Not until 1961, the Wong’s family was finally confirmed the death of Wong Senior by the Hong Kong police and his remains were discovered later.

As for the second tragedy, Peter lost his wife in 1982 when her life was taken from the plane crash of Pan-Am Flight 759, which was en route to Las Vegas from New Orleans.

Ever since the tragedy, the two parted forever after getting married for five years only. Peter didn’t talk too much over his wife’s death, but he admitted that he has long accepted his life, both ups and downs, at the age of nearly 80 now.

Passion for football

Resilient he was, Peter became happier during a 30-minute phone call after changing the topic to sports, for which he has a lot of passion.

“I have only worked two jobs throughout my career, one of which was about football coaching while another one was football punditry. But I am not only good at football, but also capable of making comments in American football and baseball,” Peter proudly said.

Since childhood, Peter has had an immense interest in sports as his late father sponsored a few famous football teams in Hong Kong, while his uncle Raymond Roy Wong was a veteran journalist, who was dubbed as the “Godfather of Journalism” by the media because of his donations and contributions to the Baptist University’s school of communication. Therefore, Peter has always been very active in the sports and media industries.

After graduating from a famous local school, Saint Joseph’s College, Peter flew to the United State for higher education and majored in business administration with a minor in sports management.

In the 1970s, Peter returned to his birthplace to develop his career as a physical education teacher, a football coach, and a football commentator in different periods before moving to the States in 1990.

Memorable 1994 World Cup

However, Peter didn’t like the “soul-destroying 9–5 jobs”, so he fired his boss after working at an office for three years.

When the 1994 FIFA World Cup was about to kick off in America, Peter saw an opportunity to pick up his former occupation — football pundit, to organize a group of tourists to watch live matches from Hong Kong to the States, as well as make live football punditry.

“I was my own boss! I collaborated with travel agencies to organize the World Cup travel tour, the first one ever in Hong Kong. At that time, I was also reporting behind-the-scenes videos for a famous TV channel, and watching the matches with local celebrities,” Peter recollected the good old days.

One year later, Peter decided to make a comeback, shifting his career to Asia, but this time, he worked in Singapore since he was hired by ESPN, the world’s biggest sports network, to be the first Cantonese-speaking football commentator in the newly-established news bureau.

Looking back on his 16 years at ESPN, Peter described those years as the most glorious time throughout his life.

Although Peter won’t be a football commentator for the Qatar World Cup, he didn’t forget to advertise himself when he shared his views on fan tokens with Poloniex.

“I don’t oppose any new technologies that ‘work’ for everyone, but if you need my endorsement, I need my rewards. But, no worries! It won’t cost you an arm and a leg!” Peter added.

So, what are Fan Tokens?

The birth of Fan Tokens can be traced back to 2020 when the world was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the yearlong pandemic, major sports events at the domestic, regional, and international levels were forced to be postponed or canceled, draining the cash flow of every sports club.

Therefore, some football clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, and Arsenal, as well as sports organizations like NBA and NHL, began to explore the profitability and possibility of utilizing blockchain technology to facilitate the interaction between their fans and seek another source of income.

If you want to learn more about Fan Tokens, please visit Polopedia for more educational articles.

Peter’s famous catchphrases:

1. “For the price of sugarcane bagasse, you get the taste of roast goose” (It refers to the lowest priced football player has the highest performance)
2. “Gary Neville has three weaknesses: no pace, running slow, not fast enough!”
3. “There are only two possibilities for a penalty: it’s either going in or going out.
4. “Who’re the best friends of goalkeepers in the match? Of course the posts and the bars.”
5. “Fantastic, Superb, Excellent!”
6. “Let’s go, rock & roll!”

For the Chinese version:

世界盃2022: 「桂神」開金口(下)

Read more on tokenomics in sports:

• Crypto in sports: COVID-19 fosters the adoption of fan tokens
• Crypto in sports: What are ASR, JUV & ACM fan tokens?
• Crypto in sports: What are CITY, AFC & PSG fan tokens?
• What is SANTOS?

Special thanks to:

• Peter HK Wong
• Peter Jacob Cheung
• Translation Team @ TRON DAO

Media contact
Sana Fong
sana.fong@poloniex.com

#2 World Cup 2022: Poloniex X Peter, the “golden-mouth” football pundit in Hong Kong was originally published in The Poloniex blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.