The other Azkals in the spotlight During the press conference for Suzuki Philippines' Hometown Heroes campaign early this week, the media was requested not to ask the guests questions about the other Philippine Azkals team members who were not present.
It was the day after the television stations aired the story alleging that four Azkals assaulted a woman and videotaped the whole thing.
Cousins Chieffy Caligdong and Ian Araneta, Roel Gener, Paolo Pascual and Yannick Tuason are used to the media focusing on the other Azkals’ players, those who were born abroad and/or those who have foreign blood.
‘‘Dati walang pumapansin sa amin. Ngayon, kilala na kami ng lahat kaya nakatulong ang pagdating ng ibang players sa Azkals (Nobody paid any attention to us before. Now, everybody knows us so in a way, the other players helped in generating attention for the whole team,’’ says winger/striker Chieffy Caligdong, who comes from Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo where it is said that boys learn how to play football the day they begin to walk.
“Masaya kami kasi ito na ang pinaghirapan namin (We’re happy because this is what we have worked,’’ says Gener, who is also from Barotac Nuevo.
Like Caligdong and Gener, Araneta believes that without the ‘‘foreign’’ players, the Philippine football team would not get this much attention.
‘‘Ang attention para sa isa ay attention para sa buong team (The attention being showered on one person is being enjoyed by the whole team),’’ he shares.
Pascual and Tuason are two of the team’s younger members.
‘‘We practice and train and we play because we love football,’’ says Tuason, an architecture student at the University of Sto. Tomas.
Goalkeeper Pascual started playing football at the age of seven. He was a striker until his coach saw that given his height (he's now 5'11"), he had the chance to become a good goalkeeper. He is now a member of the under-23 team.
“Lahat may chance. Mas maganda kung wag mo na ikumpara ang sarili mo sa iba. Naipapakita naman namin na may naitutulong kami sa team. Malaki nagagawa namin (Everybody will get his chance. It is better not to compare yourself to the others. We have shown that we can play well),’’ explains Caligdong.
Suzuki Philippines was one of the team’s staunchest supporters during the team’s journey to the 2010 AFC Suzuki Challenge Cup. Suzuki Philippines sponsored the first-ever PFF Suzuki U-23 National Cup which gathered players from the different member federations and pitted them against each other, a format similar to the AFF Suzuki Cup. The champions were given the chance to try out for the national team.
Hometown Heroes is an extensive campaign that will highlight the roots of the five Azkals players as they are from the Visayas and Mindanao. All of them are motorcycle riders. Araneta is, in fact, a racing enthusiast. Each player was given a Suzuki Skydrive 125 motorcycle.
The campaign will include billboards and print ads in the cities of Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu and Davao.
“This is part of Suzuki’s support for football and the national team. This will also promote our brand in areas where football is very popular. We are already strong in Luzon so we wanted to focus on Visayas and Mindanao as these areas are very crucial in achieving our sales target. We find football to be an effective tool in penetrating these areas. These hometown heroes are the best icons to represent local football,’’ says Suzuki Philippines president Satoshi Uchida.
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