There will be a changing of the guard for the Philippine Men’s National Football Team.
In a press conference on Monday at Studio 300 in Makati, the Philippine Football Federation announced that Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet will take over the PHI MNT, succeeding Michael Weiss and it has been a long time coming for him.
“My interest in Philippine football goes already 11 years earlier when I took, for the first time, contact with the previous manager of the national team,” said Saintfet, who previously led Qatar in the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship.
“Since that period, I’ve followed Philippine football very closely and its development. When I got in touch with Freddy (Gonzalez), I was really impressed about their ambition, their plans and their goals.
“I knew about the potential of the players who were available: the local league players, the players in Asia, Europe and the United States. I was immediately interested and hungry to achieve similar things during my time in Africa and do that also in Asia,” he added.
“I believe with the people I am surrounded with, we can achieve things and write history together.”
Saintfiet, 50, has signed on for a long-term project with the Philippines as he sought a new challenge in his coaching career. The likes of Norman Fegidero, a legendary national team player, and Ed Sacapano, the starting goalkeeper during the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup, will be on his coaching staff.
Before this chapter, he led national teams, mostly in the African continent. These include stints with Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Togo.
His most recent and perhaps greatest success was his stint with Gambia, whom he led to the 2021 and 2023 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations.
While rumors were heating up in social media that he would be the next Philippines coach, he was seen these past few days watching UAAP Season 86 men’s football tournament matches at the UP Diliman Football Stadium.
For him, it is important to nurture local talent in a national team that has fielded mostly foreign Filipino players these past few years to great success, name-dropping current Far Eastern University standouts Karl Absalon and Martini Rey.
“We are here not only for these players who are playing for the big clubs overseas,” said Saintfiet. “We are here for the total development of Phillippine football. I’m there also to help everyone to grow as a player and as a coach. I’ll also watch closely the under-17s, under-19s, under-21s, and under-23s. I am not in charge of these teams but I will be there as a supporter and analyst to see the good players there.
“I want to see football all over the country. I want to know the culture. My first impressions are very positive.”
Aside from Saintfiet, Freddy Gonzalez was formally presented as the new national teams’ director and PHI MNT manager.
Gonzalez, a former national team player who played club football in Vietnam and Indonesia, has set certain targets in this new era.
“One is to win the Mitsubishi Electric Cup,” said the former Kaya and Pachanga Diliman standout. “That’s something that is really a thing for us. Next is to qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup and to qualify for the 2030 World Cup. As you all know, I’m a very competitive person.
“I love to win. I want to win so the search for a staff for the Philippine Men’s National Team had to reflect our ambition and our desire to win and not just to make up the numbers. It took us a while. We did a lot of interviews behind the scenes and we believe we found the right team that can help us achieve our goals.”
