History is made with the Azkals…

I took my chance with the Philippines when the qualifiers for the World Cup started in 2015 and three years on we’ve made history qualifying for the 2019 Asian Cup.

We beat Tajikistan 2-1, we trailed, but we came back. Our veteran captain Phil Younghusband converted from the spot in the dying minutes in front of over 4,000 fans to get us through.

The atmosphere was amazing at Rizal Memorial Coliseum. It felt amazing getting the win - it’s the first time we’ve made the tournament. It’s a massive achievement, not only for the squad, but for the fans and the country.

I still support the Socceroos…

When I was into my second season with Adelaide United, I did really well in the Asian Champions League (ACL) and the A-League too. There was a bit of talk about me in the media about getting called up with the Socceroos. Eugene (Galekovic) was already a part of the set-up, I was in the media here and there was a chance of a call-up, but it never eventuated.

When Australia’s playing, it’s always nice to follow and see how things are going. See as well the new blood that is coming into the team. They’ve done remarkably well to make the World Cup and had a lot of adversity to deal with.

They showed their character to come through and I’m very happy for them. With the Asian Cup coming up, they’re undoubtedly one of the favourites.

There very well could be a chance we could play against the Socceroos. Playing for the Philippines you never think that far ahead, but these competitions make it realistic. I’m really hoping we get a couple of big teams in our group whether it’s Japan, South Korea or even Australia. That’s what I’m really looking forward to and football can turn out in a funny way. If we ever come across the Socceroos, I still have mates that play for Australia so it’ll definitely be nice to play against them.

Growing up half-Filipino in Australia…

Mum was born in the Philippines, dad was from Scotland and I was born in Perth. Being brought up in Australia until I was 17, I moved away to Scotland to try my luck in the Scottish league. Growing up, my mum used to cook traditional Filipino food, so that’s where I got to understand the culture.

It wasn’t until my teens when the majority of my family from the Philippines moved to Sydney.

My mum was very much about education, whereas my old man was very much about football. It’s not that he didn’t want me to go to school, he just wanted to make sure that I was focused entirely on my football.

At the end of the day they always want what’s best for you and I always had football in my mind, especially when I turned 13-14, I was focused to make sure I turn professional and I was just driven with that one goal.

I’m still doing what I want to do in life, I’m lucky to play the game I love and it brings great moments like going to the Asian Cup.

Australia is still my home…

Even though I’m half-Filipino and I’m classed as Asian, deep down, growing up in Australia, I’ll always have that mentality because that’s what I was brought up with. I don’t like to compare everything back to Australia, but growing up, you just realise how lucky you are. A lot of things, the lifestyle, but even things like the hospitals, the high standards Australia has, you can’t compare it.

It’s somewhere you’ll always call home, I don’t think there’s anywhere in the world like Australia. I’ve lived in the UK, parts of Asia and Iran and nothing compares to back home.

Professional football gives you the experience of living in different countries and being lucky to see different parts of the world. It teaches you not only a lot about football, but life in general, it’s just nice to see other countries and it teaches you how lucky and fortunate we are back home. I’m very true to my word in that sense.

Diversity in the Azkals…

We have a lot of half-Filipinos and half-Europeans. A lot of them have experience back in their home countries, some have played at a high level and some are still playing at a very high level.

In the Philippines, basketball is their national sport and you see it’s mainly full Filipinos. If we look at most of the national teams these days, there are a lot of mixed-born players representing national teams.

Maybe in the Philippines it’s a bit more focused because in our team there are so many half-Filipinos and you can tell there’s a mix there. We definitely still have a few full-blooded Filipinos in the side, so it’s nice to see a mix from my perspective.

What I would like to see change in the A-League…

I’m really enjoying my time with Felda United FC in Malaysia. My wife is Maltese-Australian and we’re expecting our second child in September. I love Malaysia, I really embrace their culture and it’s an English speaking country as well, so it’s easy to get by. There are a few Aussies here - former A-League boys Robbie Cornthwaite, Brendan Gan, Zac Anderson and Curran Singh Ferns, who’s my teammate at Felda.

 When I started my career, all I thought about was about going back to the UK. When you’re growing up, you’re thinking of leagues like where Mooysie (Aaron Mooy) is now - like the Premier League or the Championship. Coming from the A-League, it’s where I wanted to go. After Melbourne, I then went straight to Iran and now the ride is definitely in Asia.

It’s very interesting to see in the past five or six years how many Aussies from the A-League are playing in Asia. The unfortunate thing is back in Australia, financially we can’t make the money that we can in Asia. If the money in Asia was in Australia then I definitely don’t think anyone would want to leave because of the lifestyle. It might be a sacrifice to be doing what we’re doing, living in Asia.

They’re able to afford decent foreigners coming from South America and Europe. You can definitely see the quality certain foreigners have in Malaysia because the clubs can afford it. 

There needs to be some changes so Australia can hang on to certain players. More often than not you’re seeing players wanting to leave for Asia who’ve been in the A-League for a while, to make some coin.

We definitely have a few foreigners in the A-League that are doing well and in these last couple of years, we had bigger foreign names attracting larger crowds. I really hope the league can be sustained and the league will be fine from that perspective. Growing up in Australia, I want to see the A-League progress and do really well.

As told to Clement Tito…