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Source: Celest R. Flores, Philippine Inquirer

MANILA---National team manager Dan Palami is optimistic that the ongoing PFF Suzuki Cup Under-23 national championship will discover untapped talents for theSoutheast Asian Games.

“The lack of available talent locally is one of the problems we’re trying to address,” said Palami. “Competition such as this will allow players to really have a goal.”

With the popularity of the sport reaching an all-time high in the wake of the unprecedented performance of the national squad known as the Azkals, the support and interest for football—even on the grassroots level—also leapfrogged.

“It starts with interest. If they know something is happening, they will get interested in the game,” added Palami in a press conference during the Southern Luzon clusters kickoff at the University of the Philippines Los Banos last March 30.

The composition of the SEA Games’ under-23 squad will be selected from the winners of the PFF Suzuki Cup, but PFF president Mariano “Nonong”Araneta said that a number of Filipino-foreigners and foreign-based Filipinos have expressed interest in joining the squad.

Araneta said that Palami has received many applications to try out because “because their schedules will not allow them to play for a long period of time here locally.”

“But we have to start somewhere and look at the local players, then the foreigners later on, to make a good selection for our U-23 team."

For Azkals head coach Hans Michael Weiss, quality is top priority in the search for a player.

“We’re always looking for quality players who are physically strong, who have a good technique, who have a good sense to play football. Anyone who can prove himself has a chance to try out,” said Weiss.

This marks the first year that an elaborate competition for young booters is being staged, with Suzuki Philippines as the main backer.

Thirty of 33 football clubs all around the Philippines are represented in the competition, which will also be played in a home-and-away format during the regional eliminations where eight teams from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and the National Capital Region will slug it out.

Only Luzon and Mindanao are undergoing cluster eliminations, while two teams from NCR were already given two slots to the next round.

"This is a very big way of starting the process of selecting players for the national team. It’s a long term process,” Palami said.