MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine women's national football team have become the latest darlings in the country following their AFF Women's Championship title-clinching, 3-0 win over Thailand 3-nil Sunday’s final.
But rising star Bella Flanigan has been on the receiving end of a little more support from the local football community, emerging as one of the crowd's favorites early in the tournament.
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After successfully helping her team bring home the trophy, the 17-year-old rising star said she had fed off the energy of the fans — both inside the stadium and on social media.
"I definitely think the fans helped raise the morale of the team and allowed us to keep pushing through the tough, terrible, seven consecutive games that were crazy on our bodies," said Flanigan during the team's media day at the Crimson Hotel in Alabang on Monday.
"But I think the fans' energy definitely impacted our play style and it was amazing to hear everyone cheering. It was amazing," she continued.
The support ballooned for Flannigan after she scored a goal against Singapore in the country's 7-0 rout in the group stage.
Supporters even composed a song for her, which they made a point to let her hear each them she came on the pitch.
Though at first she couldn't quite wrap her head around the amount of fans she's getting, Flanigan said she aims to use it as motivation.
"I didn't, so when it first happened, I didn't actually know it was for me and my dad was like "Bella, they were cheering for you". No, they weren't," she quipped.
"And when I found out they were, I was like "Oh, no". I couldn't believe it, it's a dream come true like this is why everyone does this. It's amazing to be able to say that I could do it and I'm hoping to keep showing the crowd that I can do it, that we can do it, and we'll just keep pushing and bringing more trophies home," she added.
Flanigan is bound for back-to-back tournaments with the Filipinas as she's also slated to represent the country in the AFF U-19 Women's Championship shortly after.
She hopes to build on the success she had with the seniors team in the youth tiff.
"It's definitely going to be exciting. Change of pace, obviously. But I'm honored and excited to represent the country twice and hopefully try and bring home another medal, another trophy for the country, so we'll see," she said.