Alen Stajcic. | Photo from the PFF Website
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Women’s National Football Team (PWNFT) head coach Alen Stajcic will be in Cebu to observe the national-level tryouts for the women’s youth teams on Saturday.
Stajcic will be accompanied by team manager Jeff Ching.
The tryouts will be held at the Dynamic Herb-Borromeo Sports Complex in the South Road Properties (SRP).
The event is part of the Philippine Football Federation’s (PFF) scouting and recruitment process to discover talents in the under-20 and under-17 girls’ teams.
Successful participants will have the chance to be included in the Philippine national football team.
The tryouts are conducted in collaboration with the Central Visayas Football Association (CVFA).
According to the CVFA president, Stajcic and Ching will be attending the tryouts on Saturday.
Stajcic and Ching are best remembered for towing the Philippines to the FIFA Women’s World Cup after reaching the semifinals of the 2022 AFF Women’s Championship in India.
The Filipinas will be campaigning for the first time in the Olympics of women’s football later this year in Australia and New Zealand.
Stajcic was the team’s head coach, while Ching took care of the team’s finance and logistics in their bid to qualify for the world cup.
The tryouts are expected to draw around a hundred hopefuls for the U-20 and U-17 girls’ teams of the PFF that will be campaigning in various international competitions starting this March.
The PFF women’s national teams, particularly its U-20 squad be vying in the AFC U-20 Women’s Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers in Laos this March.
It will be followed by the AFC U-20 Asian Cup 2024 Qualifiers round 2 in June with the venue still to be determined, and the AFF U-19 women’s championships 2023 in Indonesia in July.
Meanwhile, the U-17 team will compete in the Jenesys Football Tournament in March in Japan. It will also vie in the AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup 2024 qualifiers in Guam in April, followed by August’s AFF U-16 Girls Championship 2023 in Indonesia, and the AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup 2024 Qualifiers round 2 in September.
Besides the tryouts here in Cebu, there will also be another tryout this week at the PFF National Training Center in Carmona, Cavite, and in Davao City. /rcg
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