Philippine national women’s football team head coach Mark Torcaso can’t wait to work with the nine new players joining their training camp in Manila from 17 to 26 February.
Torcaso said newcomers Autumn Cayelli, Malia Cerdon, Kaela Hansen, Nya Harrison, Ivymae Perez, Mallie Ramirez, Emma Tovar, Jaime Turrentine and Maysen Veronda have been on their radar for quite some time as they prepare for a tough grind ahead in 2025.
“This has taken the last four to six months to build this pool of players and this has been a long project. It’s lots of vision, watching lots of games, watching lots of training, having lots of conversations with the players and then we get to this point now where we can invite them into the camp,” Torcaso said.
“The camp commences on the 17th of February, which is next week and we’re really looking forward to coming there, doing some work with the girls, spending some time in Manila, having the girls showcase what qualities they have and build for a really busy new year, for next year for us.”
“So this is a big year and we want to make sure that we’re prepared and we want to make sure we’ve got as many players as possible.”
Four of the new Filipinas players compete in professional clubs overseas with the rest coming from universities and colleges.
Turrentine plays for Vitoria SC in Portugal, Tovar is part of Valencia’s squad in Spain, and Hansen and Perez are part of AFC Toronto in Canada.
Meanwhile, Hansen plays for Stanford University, Ramirez is with the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Veronda with Texas A&M, Cayelli plays for the University of South Carolina, and Cerdon is enrolled at Abilene Christian University.
The Filipinas are set to defend their ASEAN Women’s Championship in Indonesia this June, compete in the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers from 23 June to 5 July, and aim for a gold medal in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in December in Thailand.