A chat with Philippine football exec Freddy Gonzalez
Freddy Gonzalez has been a byword in the sport of football in our country for the longest time. He was one of the few players to have played internationally, before the country started to really “export” talent.
After retiring, Gonzalez wanted to give back to the sport, and he does that now as part of the new faces behind the Philippine Football Federation (PFF), as the Director for National Teams.
Philstar.com caught up with Freddie to discuss what’s been keeping him busy and to explain the direction of the PFF.
So what exactly is your role as Director for National Teams?
Freddie: I’m steering the direction where our national team should be going, between now and the future, the idea is to put in place programs and policies to make sure everything goes smoothly with the operations of the National squad, coaching staff, recruitment, and all that. Basically, anything to do with our national teams.
Does talent identification also fall under your purview?
Freddie: Yes, everything from talents here and abroad, coaching staff: local and foreign, as well as everything from camps to training schedules, match schedules, which tournaments to join, it’s a busy office. We have the most staff in the PFF, because there’s a whole ecosystem that works around it like travel, technical side, coaching, all have to come together for it to work. There’s a lot of coordination, planning, logistics. It’s not as simple as doing call-ups and then you play.
What’s the vision of this group of officers of the PFF?
Freddie: The vision and the mission as a whole right now is to really develop local football in all aspects. From the players, the referees, the coaches, the staffing, everything. That’s the only way you can sustain proper growth moving forward. Ultimately, all these things have to be addressed. It can’t be just the players. You need the coaches, the refs, the competitions where these players will play, where will they get the match fitness to play at an international level. You need to develop everything all together. We want to increase the talent pool locally, and close the gap between the foreign based and local based Filipinos. We also need to catch up with the other countries. Forget the countries in the World Cup like Brazil, Japan. Let’s focus first on Southeast Asia. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam are the yardstick of where we want to be.
On the Women's side, we’ve already been to that mountaintop, we’ve already conquered the Asean region, we’ve been to the World Cup, but we don’t want to rest on our laurels. It’s even more work now because the expectations are much higher. The next step is to remain Asean Champions and have that consistency, we’ve won a game in the World Cup, we have to get back to the World Cup and be even more competitive.
On the men’s side, we’ve seen the highs that they can achieve. So it’s all about building that group that plays together for 5-10 years, and we are able to challenge the top 2-3 Asean countries, we want to win the Mitsubish Cup this year. We’re not thinking about the succeeding ones, we want to win now. We change the culture, and eventually the success will follow.
What else keeps you busy nowadays? Just PFF?
Freddie: Yes. Even our President, John Gutierrez, he has his family business but this is a full time job so he’s not focusing on the family anymore. He’s at the office before 8am and doesn’t leave until things are done. You need to put in the time and effort for Philippine football.
Like with the National team, it’s a different animal because it’s a 24/7 job. We’re available weekends because you know a lot of the events are on weekends, like trainings, games, coaches want to scout UAAP, NCAA, PFL so the staff works around the clock. Especially, FIFA window time or tournament time, you have players flying in from all over the world, so the travel staff has to be available. For example, we have a coach that lives in Belgium, he will call me at midnight because he’s looking at a player, etc. It’s a full-time things. I’m happy I have my wife, Anne, running the business we started 20 years ago, so I can really focus on the National teams.
On a personal note, you’re professional career stopped abruptly, any regrets?
Freddie: No, I don’t regret it. When I was playing in Vietnam, that’s when Anne and I started Havaianas. That was in 2003, and it got to the point that I was always communicating about the business and this was during the old internet style. During breaks, the other players would go to sleep, I was working on stuff with Anne. It came to a point in 2004 where she couldn’t handle it on her own, so I had to come back. Then when we finally got a staff in place, I went back to playing. I went to Indonesia. But I didn’t like the place where I was in, I missed my wife and my daughter, so after six months there, I stopped and went back to work.
Eventually, I got a chance to play in Australia in the mid 2000’s, but by that time, I was already out of the professional scene. I was just playing here for Kaya and not even for the National team anymore. Eventually, I just concentrated on work. In 2012, I was convinced by the Pachanga guys to start playing again. So i went to Meralco, and I continued playing until 2017.
Looking back, without the business, I might have stayed in Vietnam for maybe 5-6 years and moved to other leagues and played till I was in my late 30’s.
Any words of advice to the players of today?
Freddie: Players always ask me what can they do after they're done in their career, I always tell them that you could save some money, or invest it so you have some passive income, but while you’re young, just keep playing until you can’t anymore. You have such a short window, in the end Father Time always wins. I wish I did continue playing.
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