Growth of PHL football as seen at the grassroots and in UFL

The continuing rise of football in the Philippines has produced a marked improvement in the quality of play in the latest set of tryouts for the UFL. In a recent episode of FTW, two players with stints in the Swedish leagues, a Filipino and his friend, added themselves to the growing number of players coming to the Philippines to make their way into the UFL, with the hope of eventually getting called up to the Azkals. Wilbert Latoy and Dario Dakic are their names, with Latoy being a native of Olongapo. Latoy later moved to Leyte, and then joined his mother in Sweden at the age of nine. He last played for Hageby IF, a team in the seventh tier of Swedish football. How badly does he want to play in the UFL? Well, he received a contract offer from a third-tier side, but turned it down. Dakic, meanwhile, moved to Sweden from Bosnia when he was seven. Not knowing the language, football became a way to communicate, and he was signed by second-tier side Smedby at the age of 11. According to Dakic, “I heard the league [the UFL] is growing and we want to be a part of that.” Now, together with Latoy, the pair have joined tryouts for Pasargad, Stallion and Kaya, with the transfer window open ahead of the UFL Cup later this year. The UFL Angel Guirado’s surprising move to India notwithstanding, the UFL continues to grow from strength to strength. Jeffrey Christiaens and Denis Wolf have already signed with Global, Stallion took on Jason De Jong and OJ Porteria, while loaning in Spanish duo Rufo and Joaco from Inter De Madrid. The Green Archers, Loyola, and Kaya also have more signings in the works. Every year the UFL is expanding and it’s quickly gaining a reputation not only in the Philippines but also abroad. One prime example is the Loyola Meralco Sparks, which made it to the Final Four of the Singapore Cup, where they are the last non-Singaporean team competing. Grassroots versus imports Much has been made of the debate between bringing Fil-foreigners into the Azkals and the UFL versus building a grassroots program. While it makes more sense to simply do both – what with grassroots taking a long time to develop and only the U-14 Philippine team recording strong wins in the last year – one player who is coming through the ranks is 17-year-old Gaby Borja. Having played in the U-14, U-16, U-18, U-19 and U-21 National sides, he is a veteran of the grassroots program of the Philippines. Usually playing the anchorman role, he was the youngest player of the Loyola team when he was training with them at just fifteen years old. Unfortunately for the football world he’s also intelligent. After graduating from Philippine Science High School, he will now be heading to the United States on an academic scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania. Looking to take up bio-engineering, Gaby noted that he’ll have to tryout with the university team, with the American season already underway when he gets there. Speaking at the same FTW shooting, though, he said that his time in the grassroots program was “disjointed” and “not as seamless as it should be.” Specifically this meant that “back then it was given to different coaches…instead of building on the team, when there was a new coach there were new tryouts.” Gaby certainly appreciated his time with the Philippine teams though, as they got to play against Asian powerhouses such as Japan. Gaby relays that experience as possibly the best of his time with the National team, as he couldn’t sleep the entire night as he was so excited. Ultimately that may have played a part in what turned out to be a 12-0 loss that Gaby described as a bit self-defeating – a case of “losing before you play” - but it’s still a fond memory. Since then, Gaby has noted that while the program still has room for improvement there has been some good progress. The Philippine U14s finished third in a recent youth tournament, for example, which saw the Little Azkals beat Brunei and Malaysia, draw with Singapore, and lose to Indonesia and eventual winners Japan. All those teams, aside from perhaps Brunei, have traditionally had much stronger grassroots programs, giving hope for the future generation of Azkals. And when he returns from the US, Gaby Borja may well be part of that. - AMD/HS, GMA News