Members of the NOFA Philippine Team. /Contributed Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Five young Cebuano football players will represent Cebu and the Philippines in separate international competitions.
Kamil Jaser “Kaj” Amirul of Don Bosco Technical College (DBTC) and Eugene Tillor of Giuseppe Football Club (GFC) made it to the Philippine national under 15 team which is currently competing in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Under 15 Boys Championships 2019 in Chon Buri, Thailand. The competition started last July 27 and will continue until August 9.
The Philippines belongs to Group A of the competition and will be competing against teams from Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Timor-Leste and Singapore.
Kamil Jaser “Kaj” Amirul /Contributed Photo
Amirul made it to the national team via the Visayas leg tryout held in Bacolod last June while Tillor tried out for the team via the Luzon tryouts as he was in Manila playing for Forza FC in the Youth Football League (YFL).
Tillor was in an exchange program between GFC and Forza FC which is owned by Candice and Aves del Rosario, who will serve as his foster parents now that he has made Manila his homebase, as part of the national junior team.
From being part of the more than 100 who passed the tryouts, Amirul and Tillor made it to the 33 who underwent a training camp at the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) training center in Carmona, Cavite from June 28 to July 24.
From 33, the two Cebuano booters made it to the final 23 lineup for the team.
The three other Cebuano booters- Renzo Angelo Enriquez and Mark Anthony Talingting Jr. – also of DBTC, and Ethan Jacob Roxas of Paref Springdale were also picked by the Negros Occidental Football Association (NOFA) to join their team in the 2019 ‘Soong Ching Ling Cup’ China-ASEAN Youth Friendly scheduled in Zhejiang, China from August 1 to 8.
The Soong Ching Ling Cup is an annual Under 13 eight-a-side football tournament aimed at promoting friendship and understanding between China and ASEAN countries.
It is hosted by the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, the Chinese Football Federation, and the ASEAN-China Center./dcb