AUCKLAND — Philippine Women’s National Football Team coach Alen Stajcic remained mum on his future now that the Filipinas’ campaign in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup has ended at the Eden Park stadium here.
Speculation is rife in Australian media that the 49-year-old mentor will take over Perth Glory in the Isuzu UTE A-League, which is his country’s top-flight competition for men’s football.
With the Filipinas returning to action in the upcoming Asian Games in China as well as the Olympic qualifiers in Perth, Australia, Filipino football fans are hopeful that this World Cup isn’t Stajcic’s last tourney as national team coach.
“Yeah, look, it’s a bit early for all those questions.
“We’ve just lost the game and are out of the World Cup when we all had hope, that little bit of hope of causing another upset like we did the other night (against New Zealand). So I’ll reflect on that for now, and in the coming days, we’ll have to start making plans for the future,” he said.
Whatever happens in the next few weeks or months, Stajcic’s legacy in Philippine sports is already secured. This chapter of his career will essentially be known as a water-into-wine job.
He and his staff took over a side that struggled to compete in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and earn a podium finish in the Southeast Asian Games to one that won the 2022 AFF Women’s Championship and defeated World Cup co-host New Zealand on its home soil.
The Filipinas have almost single-handedly revived football into the mainstream consciousness in the Philippines. They have been supported by tens of thousands of people wherever they have played, especially here in New Zealand during their group stage assignments.
It was a good run, and for now, questions about the future can wait.
“The team fought to the end, they fought to the death. And from that perspective, it’s been an amazing World Cup. The players have punched so far above their weight. They’ve delivered an amazing memory and history to Philippine football and the one that will go down in the annals of Philippine sporting history,” concluded Stajcic.
