Teen Azkals tryouts in Panaad Aug. 27

The Philippine national Under 16 football team will hold a tryout at the Panaad pitch at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.

The tryouts dubbed as the 1st Teen Azkals Festival will be conducted by national coach Glenn Ramos and supervised by team manager Alvin Carranza.

New talents are expected to join in the tryouts and those who display impressive skills will be tapped to join the exhibition games between the Teen Azkals and seasoned local teams.

On August 28, the Teen Azkals will play against the Under 19 team at 8:30 a.m. and will face the Ceres Team the next day at 3:30 p.m. Their final game will be against University of St. La Salle at 3:30 p.m. on August 30.

“This is a very laudable move from the team manager to keep the team together and explore new horizons for the team, and for the others as well,” Philippine Football Federation Secretary General Ramon Manuel said.

Carranza said the festival is aimed at spreading friendship and unifying Filipinos, who are known to be sports-minded, for the love of football.

“We hope to develop talents from the grassroots and seek scholarships for the young talents,” Carranza said, adding that with enough funding, the PFF hopes to establish a football university to mold young talents inside the Ultra-Philippine Olympic Committee-Philippine Sports Commission compound.

The Teen Azkals is composed of 19 homegrown players -- handpicked with the help of the football associations in the provinces all over the country.

Members of the present lineup of the Teen Azkals are: Jose Zaldy Abraham Jr. (Iloilo), Jose Adrian de la Sierra (Dumaguete), Christian Paul Jover (Bacolod), Jonah Vidal Suarez (Laguna), Luis Gabriel Sumera (National Capital Region), Jose Brian Langub Romo (Bukidnon);

Alfred Inaki Nacuna (Bukidnon), Phil John Battalones (Bacolod), Nessi Villanueva Ramos (Bacolod), Raymundo Santilla (Dumaguete), Angelo Gabriel Bahoyan (Dumaguete), Alexis Joseph Juan (Davao), Skie Doug Carranza (NCR, team captain), Yves Russel Caballero (Cebu);

Renko Feliz Gaudiel (Cebu), Paolo Gabriel Alilam (NCR), Ryu Nell Fegidero (Bacolod), Antonio Eduardo Rafols (Cebu), Jhoguer Pasilan Ybanez (San Carlos City), Raphael Vincent Resuma (NCR).

The team represented the country recently in the ASEAN Football Federation U16 Youth Championship in Vientiane, Laos.*

Visayan Daily Star