Paulino Alcantara - best goalscorer in Barca history

You're right veryfatchocobo, he had a Filipina mother and Spanish father.

And what you say there about Filipinos and football is ONE MILLION PERCENT CORRECT.
Filipinos in football would be like a shorter version of Brazilians. They have the same backgrounds, the same drive to emerge from poverty, the same natural characteristics that would be ideal for football. But with the brainwashing power of US culture, all Filipino children aspire to be basketball players, as you said, and that is hopeless. Filipinos in basketball are like the Fijians in football. Fijians are awesome at rugby, but for football they are far too large, slow and unskilled. The small and weak Filipino is ideal for football and not for basketball. It's all a joke really, but then the Filipinos leech onto American culture in countless other ways too, so it's really no surprise.

And I don't think football will ever emerge in the Philippines. You can't overhaul a country's preferences without colonising them or ruling them like the Americans did. It just won't happen. Not with the power of US commercialism and the widespread broadcasting of the NBA.

You're 100% correct with the Americanization there. It's preposterous really. The big malls (SM, Megamall, Ayala) with merchandise that will be stolen every second. The incessant material goods they can't afford. The American gasoline (not diesel) cars that are too expensive to maintain because of the gas prices. The overuse of cellphones. The failure to achieve a stable government based on American Democracy. Man, I'm so pessimistic. At least there's some hope with boxing. Look at Pacman...

Another reason why Filipinos don't want to play soccer is because it's a 100% outdoor sport... They don't want to be dark. They want to be as pale as a ghost or a white man <_<. I remember a story of a friend (who's Filipino) whose parents forced him to stop soccer because his skin was too dark. Interesting, huh?

What the clubs should do is island hop you know.... Start with Thailand and Malaysia because of their own (EPL) football culture and slowly work towards the countries outside of them. ABS-CBN and GMA will take note of the clubs' investments, then bam.... Commercialism! Actually, Pacquiao commercializes Arsenal in his fights.... Why not Barça?.... I mean, blaugrana almost fit their flag... They're also Nike, which he's sponsored by. So I guess that football should start with Pacman?

Does Alcantara not count because he was amateur it says Cesar Rodrigreuz is the all time top scorer.

People born in Iloilo are better known as Ilonggo(s) and the dialect is also Ilonggo. I also speak Ilonggo since I spent my college there in UP. I can assure you that football is very popular there. Almost all schools have football fields and football is very active in Barotac, Iloilo. If I am not mistaken that's where Paulino Alcantara grew up as a boy.

It's so sad that we Filipinos are brainwashed to play basketball... football suits us better imo. But football here does not enjoy popular support here in general. We have some tournaments here and there but nothing really big. The state of our NT is also pathetic as all the PFF (Phil Football Federation) officials do is constant bickering. Yes, Fifa somehow is supportive of the development of football here but we have to get our acts together before it's too late. Philippines was one of the founding member of AFC (Asian Football Confederation) and it's just saddens me that we could not even muster a WC qualifier match.

I have promised to myself that I will do a research on Paulino Alcantara somehow in the future. I regret not knowing about him until fairly recently. I wish I could go back to Iloilo City and do some research work there in the Iloilo Provincial library. But that can wait for now.

VivaBarca said:

Does Alcantara not count because he was amateur it says Cesar Rodrigreuz is the all time top scorer.

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Paulino made his senior debut for FCB at age 15, 4 months & 18 days on 25 Feb 1912 against Catala SC in the Championat de Catalunya. And he remains the youngest ever to score for FCB at age 15 to date. If one is a senior team member, it does mean that one is a pro, right?

MJ, you've seen his fights right?
Here: http://machochip.com/mannyarrives.JPG

Yes, MJ is right Pauli is the youngest player to have played in an official Barca match and all of his matchs were not amateur. Even if it wasnt la liga at the time.

I think for the legacy,his history, and his stats he sould not be forgoten he was the first Big star of Barca and the greatest striker at his time.

When the americans won the Spanish-American war in 1898, they change everythings in the ex-spanish colonies(Philippines,Cuba,Puerto Rico) and know the most popular sports there are not futbol, but basketball what a shame... i dont say this because i hate basketball because i really like this sport too, but Filipinos are more suited to play futbol, they even had a national game called Sepak Takraw which is looks like a mix of football and volleyball. They are agile,good with their feets,fast ... I hope one day football will be back in the filippinos culture and that they will be in a world cup.

Sepak Takraw, I love.... AKA footvolley. There are many variants in South America and SE Asia, but from what I've seen, Thailand's team is THE MOST INTENSE. Epic touches and bicycle kicks.

WC in your dreams, SmileyBoy... I'd bet my life that we won't get close to it in the 21st Century...

Yeah Sepak Takraw is being played in the South East Asian games and the degree of difficulty of that game is mind boggling

SmileyBoy thanks for your kind words... hopefully that WC dream will eventually be ours (I'm crossing my fingers).

@ Veryfatchocobo I can't open that link... so I can't comment on that.

Veryfatchocobo, I laughed out loud at some of the things you wrote, mainly because they're so true. And yet so comical. But at the end of the day it's very sad, I don't know when this country will find its identity. Well tbh its identity is a mix of Americanism, historical Filipino roots, and the strong influence of the West and East alike, especially China. Oh well, the people are very nice and the places outside of Manila tend to be nice too. I like it here

MJ, I will repost the picture here for you:

Notice the Arsenal jacket.

* Edit: Never mind, the picture has a massive resolution and ended up taking up most of the page. There you go, I've reduced it now.

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that's why I posted here

The school where I'm working in are the current Iloilo Provincial elementary-level football champions (12-Under-Integrated Meet 2009). Our players will compete in the Regional Meet in two weeks time. Our kids are strong and skillful. They have beaten their counterparts from Barotac Nuevo. On March 27, we will participate in the 2nd Mizuno Cup against the best Under-14, 12 and 10 of the province.

Watch this space! I will post a photo with my son beside Paulino Alcantara's statue in Barotac.:2145960713mundoemot

ooooh... Welcome!

Seems like the Filipino population is increasing here! Good to see some development in football at Las Pilipinas! Anyway, hopefully the next Prez of the Philippines (better not be Villar IMO) will stop giving the PBA/PBL money as we've created absolutely zero world class basketball players.

Born-Ilonggo-As-Alcantara said:

The school where I'm working in are the current Iloilo Provincial elementary-level football champions (12-Under-Integrated Meet 2009). Our players will compete in the Regional Meet in two weeks time. Our kids are strong and skillful. They have beaten their counterparts from Barotac Nuevo. On March 27, we will participate in the 2nd Mizuno Cup against the best Under-14, 12 and 10 of the province.

Watch this space! I will post a photo with my son beside Paulino Alcantara's statue in Barotac.:2145960713mundoemot

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Welcome to our forum, mate!

soccer in the philippines

Soccer has a very rich history in the Philippines. For some reason the sport just kinda dissappeared in the limelight. I mean it must have been really popular in those days to produce legandary players such as Alcantara, and attract agents to travel to this side of the world to find great players.

Iloilo, where Alcantarra came from, is one region in that has soccer as it's no.1 sport. It still is as of today. Too bad that the rest of the country is obssesed with Basketball instead, which is truly ridiculous, 'cause ee are just too damn short for NBA.

I believe the americans banned the sport for a time period, when they began to americanize the Philippines after the spanish colonization. So tragic 'cause pinoys are physically built for Soccer and NOT Basketball.

It's true. We've been in Camp Nou 2 yrs ago. Paulino Alcantara and Manuel Amechazurra are in their archives. I highly recommend you guys to visit FC Barcelona's museum. The tribute they gave for Alcantara is overwhelming. Make's you really proud to be pinoy. As what Alcatara seems to be in his interviews and pictures a...s as someone from las islas filipinas...Go Barca!!