YES, BUT NOT NOW

National sports associations (NSAs) do not appear ready to draft naturalized players despite the Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) offer to support them.

In a message to DAILY TRIBUNE, Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines president Marcus Manalo admitted that naturalizing foreign athletes is not yet a priority at the moment due to their very limited resources.

Instead of spending for the salary, accommodation, cost of living allowance, and other perks of foreign athletes, they would rather use the funds for the training and development of their grassroots athletes, similar to the route they have taken when they developed Carlo Paalam, Eumir Marcial, Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio in to Olympic medalists.

“It’s something that we’ve been looking at especially for the heavier weight classes. However, we currently don’t have the resources for that,” said Manalo, whose wards took home only a silver medal courtesy of Carlo Paalam in the previous 20th Asian Games in Nagoya.

“We’d rather spend on the grassroots development.”

The PSC and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) are looking to expand the national talent pool by coming up with a more solid recruitment program following Team Philippines’ strong run in the Asian Games.

PSC chairman Patrick “Pato” Gregorio said they are ready to assist NSAs in scouting potential foreign athletes or coaches who could undergo the naturalization process and help the national squad in major international tournaments.

Afterall, naturalization of foreign athletes is becoming the trend in the international arena.

In the previous Asian Games, Bahrain paraded four naturalized basketball players aside from fielding a couple more in athletics that gave it majority of its 22 total medals. Jordan, Qatar and China also deployed naturalized players as they took advantage of the “passport-only” rule that the organizers imposed.

The Philippines has four naturalized basketball players in Justin Brownlee, Ange Kouame, Malick Diouf and Bennie Boatwright. But none of them showed up, prompting Gilas Pilipinas to lose the men’s basketball gold medal.

On the contrary, the Gilas Pilipinas Women squad made use of its naturalized player as Elizabeth Means led them to the quarterfinals of the women’s basketball event.

Gregorio said it’s about time that they take their recruitment game to a whole new level.

“A naturalized player for a specific position — pitcher, blocker, spiker, striker, center — to even out the playing field,” Gregorio, a former NSA executive for basketball, boxing and rowing, said.

Gregorio also underscored the importance of bringing in high-level coaches to maximize the potential of Filipino athletes.

“Olympic caliber or DNA coaching to bring out the best in every player and strategize on the highest level of play,” he said.

But the PSC chief still reminded NSAs that recruitment of foreign bets must go hand in hand with strengthening the local pipeline.

“First, a solid grassroots foundation to find, identify and cultivate the best local talent and second, invite Filipino youth living abroad to cast the net wider for Filipino talent,” Gregorio added.

Aside from Gilas Pilipinas, several NSAs have also turned to foreign coaches to help develop local athletes, with the national rowing team tapping Aliaksandra Tsekhanovich of Russia and ABAP working with British mentor Kevin Smith. Even tennis sensation Alex Eala brought in her Spanish coach in Alejandro “Sandro” Viaene of the Rafael Nadal Academy.

POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino pointed out that other Asian countries have also embraced naturalization to strengthen their medal campaigns.

“Bahrain had 11 golds and all of them were from its naturalized athletes. There were Kenyans, Ethiopians, Russians, even China had a Cuban boxer,” Tolentino said.

“Why is it being done in basketball, in football? It’s not to say that we remove them from the games, homegrowns and naturalized athletes can exist simultaneously.”

Still, at the end of the day, it all depends on the needs and preferences of the NSAs.