The bid to make the Philippine Men’s National Football Team a better and stronger squad before the March Asian Cup Qualifiers remains on target. Team Manager and Director of National Senior Teams Freddy Gonzalez gave an update regarding the status of outstanding prospects that we will see donning the sun and three stars as the Philippines begins its bid to return to the biggest tournament in the continent since 2019.
“Cole Mrowka and Andre Leipold have appointments already in their respective consuls, so they should’ve gone there by now. Josef Baccay and Randy Scheider are processing extra documents, but all four are sure to make it before the February 25 deadline,” Gonzalez said.
A source told The Designated Kit Man that Mrowka has already secured his Philippine passport a few days ago.
Gonzalez also said that the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) is working tirelessly to secure the documents of Nick and Anthony Markanich, Jacob Erlandson, Julius Myrbakk, Aidan Daniels, Caden Chung and David Choiniere. Their papers, however, will take a different route because of some technical concerns. Gonzalez also said that he is in constant communication with Owen and Tyler Wolff for them to consider playing for the country as well.
Gonzalez expects a full squad by March to include players, who were not given permission by their respective clubs to play in the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup (AMEC) such as Manny Ott, Kevin Mendoza, Jeff Tabinas, Partrich Strauss, Jesse Curran and even Gerrit Holtmann.
One of the upsides of the Philippines’ scintillating run in the AMEC was the fact that more players are now reaching out to Gonzalez and have expressed their willingness to play for the team. Unlike before when a short reply or an acknowledgement of Gonzalez to these prospects were so rare and far in between.
“I just got a message from Jose Angel Carillo. He was never really interested before, but then all of a sudden he is messaging me, right?” Gonzalez explained.
Carillo is a Filipino-Spanish forward who plays for Real Murcia CF in Spain.
“He is tall, a good striker and a good option as well. At the end of the day, the more players we have, the more quality players we will have. It’s a good problem to have, nonetheless,” Gonzalez grinned.
The Philippine Women’s Futsal Team (PWFT) continues to surprise everyone with its current run in the ongoing AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup 2025 Qualifiers in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The team overcame a poor first half to defeat Turkmenistan, 2-0, to remain unbeaten in Group C. The Filipinas 5 earlier beat Kuwait, 4-1, and a last-gasp goal by Judy Connolly in the dying seconds enabled the squad to hold host Uzbekistan to a 3-3 draw. With seven points in three games, the Filipinas 5 only need a good result against Australia to secure a spot in the 2025 AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup on May 7 to 18 in China.
Despite less than two weeks of preparation to say that the PWFT is doing wonders in Tashkent is an understatement. Same, too, with the PNMFT’s run in the AMEC. It is only logical to credit the players, the coaches, the managers and all other people, who worked silently and out of the limelight. Which brings us to some issues regarding some people who might be directly, indirectly claiming or being credited with the success of the two teams.
A long-time observer of Philippine football recently shared to The Designated Kit Man that proper credit should be given to those, who indeed sacrificed much just to assemble and send fighting teams in the AMEC and Asian Futsal Cup Qualifiers. The source said that contrary to some claims, the coaches of a football academy and a top official of the PFF have nothing to do with the Senior National Teams for both Men and Women. The source also clarified that coach Albert Capellas and FC Barcelona have nothing to do with a newly established football academy except for branding. Moreover, the people behind this academy have no connections to the Senior National Teams.
The source is also not happy with the way some personalities are “taking advantage” of their connections with the PFF. The observer noted that while some PFF staff have no conflict of interest or self interest that may put the federation in a bad light, this can’t be said to all. PFF staff should have no club, academy or school that they run. More importantly, they shouldn’t have any business related to football.
“Everything they do should be to try and raise the standards of football around the country. They should do it because they love Philippine football,” the source explained.
Regarding the futsal team’s run in Tashkent, the observer also insisted that credit should also be given to the right individuals. “When the leadership asked for help, these people answered the call. If they declined, they can be called unpatriotic to say the least. But in doing so, they helped the parties causing all the problems in the federation,” the source said.
Hopefully, the leadership of the PFF will take note of these concerns raised by the source. And it will be done at the soonest possible time, because the once solid core team now appears to be unravelling. Cracks are beginning to show. And it will be bad for Philippine football that conflicts of interest and self interests take the limelight out and even negate the hard-earned wins that have taken more than a year to build by the current administration.
“Konting pino lang po sana lalo na sa harap ng mga bata.”
Stay safe. Stay happy and Happy New Year, peeps!
For comments or questions, you can reach The Designated Kit Man at erel_cabatbat@yahoo.com or follow his account at Twitter: @erelcabatbat
