AUCKLAND — Alen Stajcic emphasizes that all members of his Philippine Women’s National Football Team are focused on defeating Norway to advance to the knockouts of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Australian mentor has consistently addressed questions about the Filipinas’ lineages throughout the tournament, stating that anyone with Filipino blood who is willing to fight tooth and nail for the Philippines internationally is welcome in his team.
When a foreign journalist brought up the fact that the Philippines will have “two Norwegians” — referring to midfielder Sara Eggesvik and forward Meryll Serrano — for Sunday’s match, Stajcic responded politely but directly.
“We have two Filipino players who spent a lot of their time in Norway. They’re not playing for Norway. They obviously spent a lot of their childhood in Norway. Meryll was actually born in the Philippines. But as I’ve said many times, I don’t really care where they’re from. And we don’t really care who they’re playing against,” he said.
“We’ve had players play here and we played a friendly game against the USA just before the tournament. It’s irrelevant. We played against Australia and it was my old country, but it doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant. So we don’t talk about individuals.”
In Philippine sports, the involvement of certain athletes and national teams who do well internationally and are part of the Filipino diaspora who grew up abroad and developed under foreign grassroots programs has always been a contentious topic. Unfortunately, this dismissive attitude towards them is unwarranted because the Philippine constitution states that citizenship is based on the principle of jus sanguinis or the blood relationship of the parents.
While the call to involve more homegrown players in the national team will always be valid, it is more a reflection of the country’s grassroots programs needing improvement. The lack of homegrown stars can be lamented, but it should not be used against foreign-born Filipinos who choose to represent the country internationally.
(C) PWNFT/PFF
“We talk about the heart and spirit of our team and our nation and our flag that we play for and our national anthem that the players sing for. I am proud of the whole group. Sara, Meryll, it’s irrelevant really where they grew up,” said Stajcic.
“So you know we don’t want to talk about individual players here in front of the whole group and isolate them in a different way but you know just from the coaching perspective I’m really proud of the whole group that we’ve got to this point in a tournament,” he continued.
“We’re still alive. No one thought we’d be alive. We were everyone’s underdog. We’re going to the last match against the superpower of women’s football historically and knowing that we have a chance of progressing through to the next round.”
Stajcic and the Filipinas hope to make further history in this World Cup by defeating Norway on Sunday evening to secure a spot in the knockouts.
While the challenge may be daunting, the former Central Coast Mariners coach wants his side to go for the win and pull off another upset.
“From a team perspective, we’re all really excited and looking forward to the game tomorrow. Yeah, the emotions and the vibe in the group have been really good. We’re going into this game like we do every game. So we’re all excited to play tomorrow,” he said.
