The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) is boosting the composition of national teams, especially the youth teams, by “casting a wider net” to discover the best talents. Building on the legacy of former PFF President Mariano Araneta, Jr. of conducting regional tryouts, current President John Gutierrez’s administration enhanced PFF’s talent discovery through the Talent ID Network. In this program, an expert from the federation scouts for outstanding players at university leagues, weekend tournaments, and competitions throughout the Philippines.
Tasked to scout for talents this year is Roman Oliver, a UEFA A-licensee and former FC Barcelona Youth coach. Oliver is also Chief Scout and Analyst 360 Sport Management who has completed coaching stints in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Thailand.
Oliver is no stranger to Philippine football as he was the PFF’s Philippine National Football Team analyst and talent scout from January 2018 to February 2019.
Oliver toured the country from February 28 to April 26, 2025, during which he collaborated with 82 local coaches in identifying the best players.
“I’ve been positively surprised by the level of local players, especially in terms of their competitiveness, winning mentality and hunger” said Oliver. “There is still room for improvement in decision-making and interpretation of the game, but there’s a lot of talent and potential across the country. I’ve been particularly impressed by the regions of Cebu and Mindanao,” he added.
In his trips, Oliver kept an eye out for footballers who possess “winning mentality, emotional stability, physical potential, game intelligence, body and ball control plus some extra X-factor.” He also disclosed that the ability of players to be independent, e.g., live away from their families, was also an important part of the criteria for selection.
For younger players, Oliver considered the relative age of the player and biological maturity.
From among 1,691 participants in numerous football activities, 189 talented players (132 boys and 57 girls) from the ages of 12 to 22 made it to the short list.
Also, 974 talented players were scouted across various football competitions in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao including the UAAP, PFL, NCRFA, NCRFA U15, and the PFF Women’s League.
PFF President John Gutierrez said, “This kind of talent identification is efficient as players are scouted where they are at. Moreover, it produces a more accurate assessment of the player’s abilities because the scout evaluates the player in a real game situation. Thanks to the scouting report, the PFF is able to come up with a wide database of players whom we can invite when tryouts for national teams open up.”
Oliver affirmed the Talent ID Network’s importance by saying, “The federation is putting a lot of effort into monitoring all the country’s talent so we can assemble the highest-quality teams.”
The Talent ID Network will be an ongoing program, said Gutierrez. “We will continue to comb the nation in search of these talented athletes. Coach Roman Oliver will discover more of them,” he assured.
Oliver’s latest effort picked up from the nationwide talent ID conducted in 2024 by Coach Yuki Matsuda and then PFF Grassroots Department Head Coach David Javellana. Together, Matsuda and Javellana assessed more than 1,100 under-16 Boys.
Negros Occidental Regional Football Association (NORFA) was one of the 11 sites where the program was conducted in 2024.
“It was held in Bago and San Carlos for the convenience of the players,” recalled NORFA President Jose Miguel Valmayor.
Valmayor encouraged all stakeholders to strengthen the PFF Talent ID Network program and make it truly successful.
“Local clubs and schools should seriously support and participate in the local talent ID, Centers of Development, and national tryouts. It’s really a team effort if we want football to grow nationwide,” he emphasized.
The Talent ID Network is also being implemented for the Under-17 men’s and women’s teams that will participate in the AFC U17 Asian Cup Qualifying Tournaments. The Young Filipinas will compete in Group A of the qualifiers from October 13 to 17 in Dushanbe against Syria, host Tajikistan, and Malaysia. The Philippine U17 men’s team was drawn in Group E with Australia, Iraq, host Jordan, and Bhutan, and will play from November 22 to 30 in Zarqa. The Philippines’ U17 men’s team showed recent progress by finishing second in last year’s qualifying group, a historic achievement for the team.
