Thank you, Cebu Bayawanon booter credits Cebu for success in football

Cebu has played a big role in Philippine sports from contributing players to the national team to being the training ground of players from other areas in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Cebu has become a stepping stone for players to getting an opportunity to representing the country or getting scholarships from big universities in Metro Manila.

One such case is Renko Feliz R. Gaudiel, who is a native of Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, but spent most of his growing up years in Cebu before accepting a scholarship offer at the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), where he recently graduated from the course of AB Political Science.

“I grew up in Cebu so playing competitive football in Cebu from grade school up until my first year in college definitely played a pivotal role in my development as a football player and as a person,” said Gaudiel, who was recently in town.

The 22-year-old had his elementary and secondary education at Bright Academy and spent a year at the University of San Carlos (USC) before transferring to ADMU. He was instrumental in ADMU winning the 79th UAAP college football title.

The Bayawanon credits Cebu for his being a member of several Philippine junior teams and representing the Philippines as a member of the Little Azkals Under 14 squad that was handled by coach Oliver “Bingbing” Colina in 2010 and the Teen Azkals Under 16 in 2011 under coach Glenn Ramos in his youth years.

“I was even fortunate enough to represent Cebu in different regional competitions with the Under 12, Under 14 and Under 19 age categories. In fact, representing Cebu paved the way for me to eventually play for the country in these age brackets so I’m very grateful,” said Gaudiel.

Gaudiel plans to attend law school next school year but is not about ready to hang his spikes as he hopes to try his luck in professional football via the Philippines Football League.

“I actually plan to play professionally at least before I go to law school. I plan to play for about 6 to 7 months only before I enter law school,” Gaudiel said.

Football is actually not the first sport of Gaudiel, who started playing football when he was 7-8 years old.

“My first sport was basketball and tennis but I found out that my dad was into football so I decided to try football out. I started liking it until it became a passion,” explained Gaudiel.

However, more than getting to represent the country, scoring goals in international competitions and helping ADMU win the UAAP title, he considers being able to glorify God through football as his greatest achievement..

“More than all the goals and the personal and collective accolades that I was fortunate enough to experience, I’d like to think that my greatest achievement in the sport is really being able to glorify God through playing football. Because I know that all of this comes from God. So I try to give it my all, knowing that God deserves nothing less. And, so in football and in life in general, I do my best to remind myself na I play and live for something bigger than myself and that’s where God comes in. And, hopefully along the way, I get to inspire others to do the same.”