MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine women's national football team got to have a moment with the top prize of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup as the country welcomed the winners trophy as part of the FIFA Women's World Cup Trophy Tour on Wednesday.
Set to remain in the country until Thursday, March 2, the trophy was displayed at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati where the Philippine Football Federation, along with the embassies of co-hosts Australia and New Zealand, unveiled the coveted prize with FIFA overseeing the whole event.
Members of the Filipinas were present at the event, including co-captain Hali Long. She and the other members of the Filipinas, and the U-20 team, were able to get up close and personal to the trophy used by the Women's World Cup since 1999.
The @PilipinasWNFT take a good look at the FIFA Women’s World Cup winner’s trophy
— Luisa Morales (@mluisamorales_) March 1, 2023
They will be able to vie for this exact trophy in a couple of months when they compete in New Zealand | @StarSportsHub @PhilstarNews #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/efnT6aZ6sO
"[It feels] surreal, again. It didn't feel like we were actually going to play in the world cup. So once that felt real, they sprung another surprise that we actually get to see the world cup [trophy]." Long said.
"We can't touch it, only the winners but it's a really cool experience to have it here in the Philippines for the first time."
Joining Long were long-time Filipinas veterans Inna Palacios and Shai del Campo. Young guns Bella Flanigan and Chantelle Maniti also graced the event along with their U-20 teammates.
As they were able to experience being around the trophy for the first time, Long said that it has inspired them to shoot beyond New Zealand and Australia, and establish a long-term program to grow the sport.
"The trophy is a legacy, I mean, you will remember this tournament forever, for the rest of your lives and hopefully, we don't go there to just participate, but we can go there and make our country proud, make our family and our country men proud and not have this be a one-time showing at the world cup." she said.
More in store with co-hosts
Apart from the trophy tour, both ambassadors from the New Zealand and Australian embassy promised more to come to drum up support for the Filipinas as the competition draws near.
New Zealand ambassador to the Philippines Peter Kell said that they are already in the middle of planning for more things to come in the following months.
"We are looking to do something to profile the opportunity, not just for Australia and New Zealand, but also for the Philippines. So we are actually in the middle of planning that," he said.
HK Yu PSM, Australian ambassador to the Philippines, meanwhile hoped that the Filipinas will be able to make it out of the group stages so they can play in Australia as well.
Because the Filipinas are in Group A, along with New Zealand, Switzerland and Norway, the Nationals will be based in Auckland for the group stages.
"From my perspective, that's going to be the biggest news ever. And it will really make my year," Yu said of the Filipinas making it out of the group stage and getting to play matches in Australia.
"We would love for the Filipinas to actually get up to the finals so they also get to play in Australia. That would mean so much to me and so many Filipino-Australians that live in Australia. There are 400,000 Filipinos who actually live in Australia and made Australia home... I know that all of them would be there really cheering hard for the Filipinas and it would mean the world to them if they could actually play in Australia," she added.
The trophy tour commenced for public viewing Wednesday afternoon with mini-games and booths also set up to cater to the Filipino football fans.
On Thursday, the trophy will be at the adidas Brand Center where activations will continue to happen.
The trophy will then depart for Vietnam next. The winners trophy is set to visit all 32 participating countries in the FIFA Women's World Cup in what is the largest trophy tour they have yet to do.