The “Good Old Days”: The Lost History of Philippine Football

Our footballing heritage is actually older than our passion for basketball and it is unfortunate that we have lost our historical ties with the sport. Many sports fans nowadays have no knowledge about the development of football even before basketball took root and supplanted it.

Alcantara and the other members of the Los Extranjeros trio — Manuel Amechazurra and Juan Garchitorena — have become the first few Filipinos to have played in the Spanish league with FC Barcelona. Other Filipino-Spanish players have also played for other Spanish clubs as well. All these legendary players have paved the way for future football players to follow their footsteps in achieving excellence in the game that we all love.

They may be from the distant past but they are truly trailblazers of their era where football started as a game played by some to a passion enjoyed by billions of people worldwide.

Paulino Alcantara

One of the greatest all-time Barca goalscorer is a Filipino, there is no doubt about it. Considered one of the most fearsome and competitive players of his generation, Paulino Alcantara is like a typhoon that creates devastating kicks that often left goalkeepers in bewildered awe.

With his jersey enshrined under the Barca greats, there is no one to look up when you are a Filipino football fan but the legend in Alcantara. Editorial cartoons document his exploits much like football magazines cover the careers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Though underestimated as an athlete, Alcantara is like a raging goal-scoring bull that score at will during the time where football is rough and physical. For 357 games, he remains the most experienced professional football player that we ever had.

For a player where his kit and pleats displayed for every football fans to see in the heart of Catalan football is truly an amazing achievement. You can’t help but feel proud to have someone from your country to represent the very best of the beautiful game.

Manuel Amechazurra

It is believed that Manuel Amechazurra is the first “Filipino” to have played professional football although he may sound like an Argentine, Amechazurra was born in Negros.

Dubbed as “the Adventurer,” he played for 137 games with the Catalan giants as he became one of the leading players of Barca founder Joan Gamper. Teamed up with the finest players of the that time, Barcelona won numerous titles as their team wowed the crowd of Camp de la Industria (before Camp Nou housed the team of Messi and company). He supplemented his income by teaching English to managers of the club because at that time, professionalism was not practiced officially until 1924. Despite the financial situation, Amechazurra was paid well as compared to some of his teammates.

Not many people know that Amechazurra is an accomplished swordsman just like Hollywood debonair Douglas Fairbanks did in his swashbuckling movie adventures.

Juan Garchitorena

Apart from his four-year stint with Barca, Juan Garchitorena remains an enigma. He was one of the earliest football superstars who entered showbiz. In fact, he became a “Hollywood” star under the screen name Juan Torena.

Being one of the prominent Basque mestizo Garchitorena clan of Manila, he emigrated to Argentina at a very young age and then tried his luck in Spain in the local football circuit where he eventually suited for Barca. During that time, the team was on a transition where it became the only time a top-flight professional team have three Filipinos on its lineup.

The Catalonian champs reaped the benefit of having three talented men on board as they blasted the competition away on-route to Copa del Rey and Campionat de Catalunya silverware finishes. After his playing career was over, Garchitorena tried his luck as an actor as he starred in various Spanish-language films. He was linked to various actresses including veteran silent-movie star Myrna Loy and platinum-blonde femme fatale Natalie Moorehead, who later became his wife.

Eduardo Teus

Eduardo Teus López-Navarro, also known as Teus, played for Real Madrid as a goalkeeper from 1913 to 1918. He later became a sports journalist and was later tasked by General Francisco Franco to manage the Spanish national football team as head coach. He managed the national team from 1941 to 1942.

In 1958, he died due to a head stroke while watching a game at the press box of the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao. French-Filipino Alphonse Areola became the second Filipino to play as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid.

Felipe Calderon

Felipe Calderon Kaiman, also known as Kaimo, was defender who played for Real Madrid from 1927–1928.

Marcelino Galatas

Marcelino Galatas Renteria, known as Chelin, was sent by his family to study in Spain, more specifically in the Basque country. After completing primary and secondary studies, he studied industrial engineering in Bilbao.

He made his debut with the Atletic Club Bilbao during his early years as a footballer. The team took a chance on him as one of their players Laca got injured. He is perhaps the youngest-ever Filipino to play for a Spanish club at 16 years old! According to the Atletic Club website, he appeared playing a match in the Vizcaya regional championship against the SD Deusto in the 1920–1921 season.

Interestingly, he went on to play for the opposing team — SD Deusto. The young Galatas dazzled fans with his quality and received offers to sign for numerous Basque teams like Osasuna Atletic Club, Tolosa CF, Esperanza Sports Club and Real Sociedad .

In 1923, he left SD Deusto and signed for Real Sociedad. Although he lived in Bilbao to study, he decided to play for them. He played for four seasons from 1923 to 1927. He played a total of 53 official matches and scored 18 goals. With Real Sociedad, he won the regional championship of Guipúzcoa in 1925.

By that time, Galatas moved to Madrid for further studies. For a while, he was regularly traveling from Madrid to San Sebastián by train to continue playing for Real in official matches. Meanwhile in the 1925–1926 season (with permission from Real), he played with Atlético de Madrid (then Atletic Club de Madrid) in friendly matches. He even went on tour with Atletic from Madrid to America on one occasion

In the 1927–1928 season, Galatas was officially integrated into Atletico Madrid where he played two official competitions. He eventually played 21 official matches and scored four goals during that season. His team won the Campeonato Regional Centro that season, but he only played a more limited role without going through the group stage. Galatas hung up the boots at the end of the 1927–1928 season.

After finishing his career in industrial engineering, he left for the Philippines where he lived for two decades. After that time, he returned to Spain settling in Madrid .

Jose Maria Echengoyen

Jose Maria Echengoyen Elizalde is a midfielder who played for Atletico Madrid from 1921 to 1926. He played together with Marcelino Galatas when the former joined them on tour in the 1925–1926 season.

Gregorio Querejeta

Gregorio Querejeta Amestoy, known as Chupitos, started his career with Zaragoza FC on January 21, 1934 in Tercera Division in a 2–0 victory over the ‘Elche CF. His team eventually got a promotion from the Tercera to the Segunda Division, and in 1940, it came to play in the Primera Division for the first time. He stayed at the Aragonese club until 1943, when he moved to Atlético Aviación. He played his last game at Zaragoza in the Generalísimo Cup, in the second round against Valencia CF .

In the capital, he was trained by Ricardo Zamora. He remained there for three seasons, reaching second place in the championship in the Primera Division in 1943–1944. In the 1947–1948 season he played in the Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, a club in its first season in the Primera Division, with which he made three league appearances.

Jose Luis Querejeta

Jose Luis Querejeta Amestoy, a brother of Gregorio Querejeta Amestoy, has played for CA Osasuna from 1940–1944 and Real Santander from 1944–1946.

Ignacio Larrauri

Ignacio Larrauri Larrauri is a forward who played for Atletico Bilbao in the Primera Division from 1941–1942 and Atletico de Guecho in the Segunda Division from 1943–1944. He scored 9 goals in 19 official appearances.

Julio Uriarte

Julio Uriarte Garcia was born in Samar in 1914 but moved to Spain years later where eventually signed up to become a footballer. He played for Zaragoza in the Segunda Division in 1934. Two years later, his team got promoted for the Primera Division for the first time.

Unfortunately, the championship was suspended for three years due to the Spanish Civil War, so Uriarte made his debut in the Primera División on February 3, 1939 on the first league match where they won 3–2 against Celta Vigo . He played all the games where they ended up seventh place in the standings. In the following season, he missed no game and on December 22, 1940, he scored a goal in the match ended 2–2 against Atletic Club of Bilbao.

The Zaragoza placed last in the league and was relegated to the Segunda División but returned to the top flight after a season. In the 1942–1943 season, the club got relegated under Jacinto Quincoces. He made his last appearance with Zaragoza on May 16, 1943 with a 1–0 win at Valencia.

The International Stage

Football in the Philippines has reached its golden age when the country started competing in international tournaments before the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic football tournament opened to Asian teams. During the early quarter of the 20th century, the Far Eastern Games was the pinnacle of regional football competition. It was like the Olympics of Asia before the Asian Games started in 1951.

Far Eastern Games

In 1913, Elwood Brown, president of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Association and Manila Carnival Games, proposed the creation of the “Far Eastern Olympic Games” to China and Japan. It was at that time that Governor-General William Cameron Forbes was the president of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation from 1911–1913. Governor-General Forbes formed the Far Eastern Olympic Association.

On February 1, 1913, the Philippines played its first ever international fixture against the Republic of China (represented by the South China Athletic Association) at the Manila Carnival Grounds. It was also the inaugural staging of the football tournament for the first Far Eastern Games. One game was played in what was also called “Campeonato de Oriente” with the Philippines winning 2–1.

However, it was also shrouded with controversy as the Philippines were represented by select players from both the Bohemian and Sandow clubs with mixture of British, Spanish and American players thus contravening the regulations of the tournament by playing foreign players. Despite the controversy, the Philippines were awarded the gold medals.

In the 1915 games, it was a two-legged playoff series where China emerged as the winner 1–0 in aggregate after a scoreless first game draw. In the 1917 games, the Philippines fielded Paulino Alcantara where they recorded the biggest ever win against Japan 15–2. But they got thumped by China 3–0 in a match that was abandoned after China made its fourth goal through a penalty kick, after which a brawled occurred after the Filipino goalkeeper punched the Chinese scorer. This led to the Philippines’ withdrawal.

In the 1919 games, there was a two-legged preliminary round were both split two games but China eventually won 2–1 in the rubber match. The 1921 games saw China won over the Philippines again in a tightly fought 1–0 win. China had another repeat performance by defeating the Philippines yet again 3–0 in the 1923 games. The Philippines suffered its worst home defeat at that time 5–1 in the 1925 games and followed the worst scoreline of 5–0 in the 1930 games in Japan. In the 1930 games, the Philippines suffered its worst loss against Japan at that time 7–2.

The 1934 games, the last Far Eastern Games, saw a four-corner tournament with China besting the Philippines, Japan and the Dutch East Indies for the gold. China swept all the nine stagings of the Far Eastern Games while the Philippines settled for silver medals from 1915 to 1925 stagings of the football tournament.

Despite China’s overwhelming dominance in regional football, the Philippines have regularly competed with distinction by having good results against Japan and the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia). Both China and Japan eventually made their Olympic debut at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and the Netherlands East Indies have made their only appearance at the 1938 FIFA World Cup in France.

Overall Head to Head

In those times, the Asian football scene was more like a three horse race as most Asian territories were still European colonies and others have yet to participate international football tournaments. Interestingly, the Philippines has defeated Japan on its first four meetings and has the most number of wins against top footballing countries on its all-time record.

Cultural Shift

It is not really clear as to when the sporting shift occurred but it is very evident from the start that most of the best players that could have played for the Philippines were of mixed-parentage and many of whom have decided to ply their trade in Spain. Domestic club football suffered as the Americans have promoted their sports that included basketball and baseball. Eventually, the attention in the sport scene has started to shift towards the other sports.

As previously mentioned, there is a stigma attached to football since most of the players are mixed-race and others are from the higher social class. Getting more people attracted to play the sport has made it difficult since sports clubs then are like most social clubs where there criteria as to what people can join.

The Philippine Amateur Football Federation was not able to capitalize and maximize the growth of the sport as other countries have improved. The football league went into a state of uncertainty and did not reached to a point where it became part and fabric of Filipino sporting culture. The establishment of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1924 and the University Athletic Association of the Philippines in 1938 should have paved the way for the sport to grow in the grassroots level but it hasn’t delivered its potential as basketball has eventually became more popular than other sports.

Interestingly, one of the official head coach (1930, 1934) of the national team was Dionisio Calvo. Yes, the same basketball coach that led the country to fifth-place finish at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. But before he dived into coaching the national football and basketball teams, he was first a member of the national swimming team in the 1921 to 1923 Far Eastern Games.

Final Thoughts

The past is the past but it is important for the current and future generations to understand the importance of knowing the legacy of those who brought the sport to new heights. Let us learn from the lessons of the past and do our part to promote the beautiful game to each and everyone in the country. Let us repay the sacrifices of the people before us who brought our country honor and glory by recognizing and remembering them in our collective public sporting consciousness.

This article was originally published at Istoryadista on October 13, 2019.