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Phil
Younghusband is already training with the Los Angeles
Galaxy in US Major League soccer. He is set to join the
team in July.
Younghusband, who turns 20 in August, looks to become
the first player with Filipino blood to suit up for a
major-city soccer team in the US.
Details
of Younghusband’s deal with the Galaxy are not known.
The
England-raised Filipino will be on the same team as
Langdon Donovan, considered the greatest US-born soccer
player ever, and, possibly, David Beckham, who has
expressed earlier his intention to join Los Angeles this
season.
Phil, a
striker, and his older brother James, a midfielder, are
currently in the country for a vacation. They are joined
by their mother, Susan.
The
Younghusbands have given RP football a face the last
couple of years, their inclusion in the national squad a
boost to the Philippines’ chances in competing against
Southeast Asian countries.
While
the brothers helped to keep Filipinos glued to their
seats in the Southeast Asian Games in 2005, the
Younghusbands’ watershed performance was in the Asean
qualifiers held last November.
In that
tournament also held in Bacolod, Phil shone brightest,
scoring six goals in four games and sent the Philippines
to the Asean Cup proper two months later in January.
During
that four-game binge, Phil’s offense helped the
Philippines string three straight victories, the first
time a Filipino club did so in one tournament.
Phil
also scored the country’s lone goals in a 4-2 loss to
Malaysia in the 2005 SEA Games.
The
Philippines is currently ranked 170th in the Fifa
rankings, 20 places higher than when it bottomed out at
No. 190 in September 2006.
The
Philippine Football Federation allegedly found out about
the Younghusbands when a person tipped them after seeing
the brothers’ profiles on a video-game console some time
in 2005. The brothers played for the youth and reserves
teams of Premier League club Chelsea.
The
siblings, who were born in Middlesex, England, are also
set to assume roles as product endorsers.
James,
meanwhile, has already made himself available to play
for the national team that will see action in the
Thailand SEA Games in December. He will go back to
England at the end of the month and come back to Manila
in September when training begins.
Phil, on
the other hand, plans to go back to Los Angeles and
continue to train. Whether he will be with the
Philippine team to prepare for the SEA Games is not yet
known. |
