Payatas FC player makes the Women's National Team

Angelica with David Beckham at the LA Galaxy Soccer Clinic.
(Image courtesy of Fairplay For All Foundation)

A 12 year old girl from Payatas, one of the poorest areas of Manila, has been selected to attend the training camp for the U14 women’s National Team. Ahead of the U14 AFC Cup later this year, Angelica Sagum is one of thirty two girls scouted from all over the country who have made the penultimate cut for the women’s U14 team. These 32 girls are now training together as part of the camp, where coaches will decide the final squad to be taken to Vietnam for the U14 Girls Regional Championship.

Payatas is a very poor urban area where many residents make their living from scavenging garbage directly from the dumpsite, the largest open dumpsite in the Philippines. Some of our players are jumper boys, who will jump on the back of trucks, climb inside, and scavenge for the best trash to be sold at junkshops later on. Others wash plastic to be sold by the kilo once cut and cleaned. Others are able to go to school and study.

In January 2011 Roy Moore began coaching the football team at the local barangay basketball court. At the first session over 80 children joined on the court, starting a separate football team in Kasiglahan. Now there are around fifty regular members of the football team and Payatas FC trains twice a week. The kids still play mostly barefoot.

Angelica’s Story

Angelica’s father is a truck driver who used to take Angelica with him on his delivery trips to pick up garbage. While accompanying him, she would often pick up the trash from the streets and throw it into the back of the truck, helping her father as he delivered the garbage to Payatas. As a four year old she fell against an iron bar, hitting her head and cracking her skull. The family didn’t realize how serious the problem was until the symptoms manifested when Angelica was nine years old and she collapsed, losing some brain functions for a while. After an MRI scan and some treatment, though, she made a full recovery and began to play football a year later, when ten years old.

In one of her first tournaments, when she had been playing football for just seven months, Angelica was Payatas’ top scorer on the way to the Semi Finals in the U11 Division. With most other teams fielding only boys this was an impressive feat as Payatas FC’s only girl, made all the more impressive as she was playing as a defender at the time. On one occasion, she tackled one boy while defending and dribbled the length of the field, past several of the other boys, to score and win the game for Payatas FC.

As part of Payatas FC, Angelica has joined training clinics with the Azkals and with LA Galaxy, largely in part due to the kindness of the Azkals Manager Dan Palami. At first, though, she was shy to join the football team after seeing the weekly training sessions at the basketball court. “Lagi ako nanonood [ng football] sa Channel 23… [pero] nahihiya pa ako sumali [noon]”. When asked how she feels when she is playing football she said: “Enjoy. Masaya ako kasi marami akong nagiging kaibigan”.

Another big incentive was that through Payatas FC she has been able to travel outside of Payatas more, as she said one of the biggest reasons she enjoys playing football is “kasi nakakapunta [ako] sa iba’t-ibang lugar”.

Angelica also had an interesting response when asked what her dream was, a one word answer: “Masaya”. Of course her family are very proud of her making this first cut. Her mother, Donna Sagum, said of her daughter “Talagang gusto niyang makasama sa football… Masaya ako para sa kanya, gusto ko rin na makapunta siya sa ibang bansa.” She spoke of her daughter as an inspiration and how proud she was of her, particularly about overcoming the hardships Angelica and her family have faced, especially how for five years Angelica was walking around with a cracked skull.

Now, Angelica hopes to join the National women’s team for the U14 Girls Regional Championship in Vietnam.

U14 Girls Regional Championship

In all, seventeen countries in Asia are participating in the U14 Girls Regional Championship. The Philippines are in Group D with the other five competing ASEAN nations; Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. The Philippine U14 women’s team will open their participation in the tournament against Cambodia on June 18.

About the Fairplay For All Foundation

The Fairplay for All Foundation was created by Roy Moore and Naomi Tomlinson in 2011. Payatas FC is its flagship project and the team has been successful both on and off the pitch. We believe football is a level playing field where it doesn’t matter how much money you have, who your parents are, or where you live; what matters is how hard you train, how skilful you are, and how well you work as a team.

The charity also runs a drop-in centre which provides basic nutrition, education, and a safe space to play. In May, the number of children whose education we sponsor doubles from twenty to forty due to the great response of our supporters, though there are more deserving children waiting for a sponsor.

In 2013 we will also be starting an urban farming project, micro-finance, and canvassing for an area for a compound to build our own futsal court, classrooms, and a larger urban farm for the future.

Official Press Release courtesy of Fairplay For All Foundation.