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After an eye-catching season in the shortened 2020 PFL season, the Azkals Development Team (ADT) has sparked interest in some of their brightest overseas club stars.
Notably, the prominent Jarvey Gayoso and Mar Diano are the subject of ongoing negotiations between ADT’s management and clubs abroad.
“Offers have already been made, I think we already have to get Jarvey and Mar Diano out of the country,” national team manager Dan Palami told ESPN5.com. “There are offers for the other players too, but we’ll see.”
“I can already confirm that Jarvey is most likely, of course negotiations are ongoing, but we do receive specific requests for his services,” Palami added. “For Diano and (Gayoso, as well as some other players”).
National team and ADT head coach Scott Cooper echoed Palami’s sentiments on a recent episode of the Crossover podcast, adding that his performances during the PFL season drew attention.
“At the end of the season I had two or three teams in Thailand who wanted to sign Jarvey Gayoso, who wanted to sign Diano, they are the two players we have offers at the moment. Cooper said.
When asked which Thai clubs are looking to sign the two young stars, Cooper decided not to be specific.
“Good teams” was all he had to say.
In the PFL season, the ADT finished tied for the best defensive record after conceding just two goals in five games played. Diano, played a key role in that bottom line and dramatically improved from what was a solid performance at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
Matthew Custodio, one of Diano’s partners at the heart of ADT’s defense, also attracted the attention of overseas clubs after the season.
ADT management believes Gayoso shined as a left-side attacking midfielder and that could be something to build on moving forward.
“The Thai teams have watched the games, they have said they would like to see him (Gayoso) in an offensive midfield role, where I think he finished the season quite well,” Cooper said. “Possibly that is his best position.”
All of this talk about possible overseas moves for ADT stars is in keeping with the vision of the show, which is to develop and showcase young Filipino talents and have them compete in bigger leagues overseas. Ideally, that cycle would end with a larger group of more experienced local players to add to the Azkals team.
Rejuvenating
ADT finished the season in third place out of six clubs, losing only to Philippine club soccer giants United City FC and Kaya FC Iloilo in 1-0 losses. While those kinds of results will be difficult to replicate if players like Gayoso and Diano keep going, management is eager to facilitate their transfer off the team to focus on even younger talent in the future.
“The plan is to keep the median age even lower this time, maybe 20 years old, 21 would be the median age for next season,” Palami said. “Which means we will let the older players go.”
“We are also seeing the arrival of new young national players and some other players that I also have overseas,” Cooper said.
Ideally, this type of setup will also mean significantly longer preparation for age-restricted tournaments like the SEA Games, which is an under-22 tournament held every two years.
“We will try to lower the age to be eligible for the SEA Games as much as we can, if we could gather 60, 70 percent of the SEA Games team in the ADT program, it would be great because it would be like an 8, 9 month training camp for SEA games, “Cooper said.
“Generally we will try to lower the average age a little,” he added. “Some players will move internationally, one or two players will move nationally to club teams, maybe United, Kaya or Stallion.”
The ADT is scheduled to meet again in January to focus on player development and return to full-time training. Cooper admitted that both Gayoso and Diano would have likely left the ADT program at that time.
