PFL players Pocholo Bugas and Quincy Kammeraad are optimistic about what’s to come for football in the Philippines.
Quincy Kammeraad and Pocholo Bugas arrive at the Mall of Asia Football Pitch at the same time, fresh from training with their respective clubs in the Philippines Football League (PFL).
The field, located at the top of the country’s biggest shopping mall, is quiet — a unique juxtaposition from the bustling crowds shopping just one floor below — save for the occasional drilling noises from the still-under-construction corners of the field. Having just recently opened, improvements are still in the works; however, this pitch already has Quincy’s approval. After training here with One Taguig FC recently for the first time, it instantly became one of his favorites to play on among the fields in Manila, thanks to its brand-new facilities.
Pocholo and Quincy both agree that the country still needs more places for footballers to play. In their ideal world, every club in the PFL would have its own field or stadium to call home, so they could play home-and-away matches and draw communities to support each team. The country may still have some ways to go before achieving such a reality.
For now, the MOA pitch is still a promising step in the right direction.
This also makes it a fitting venue for a sit-down conversation with these two young professionals who personify the future of Philippine football.
The early days
Quincy Kammeraad was born and raised in the Netherlands, and in Europe, football is religion. It also so happened that football was loved in his home, as well.
“I came from a football family where my dad played, my brother played, and I kind of rolled into it,” the Dutchman shared with The GAME. “In school and in PE or during lunch breaks, all we did was basically play football. And towards when I [turned 10 years old], it got more serious.”
“Serious” refers to the point when he began to gain interest among local football teams; when playing for fun turned into a potential career path. At a young age, he signed his first academy contract with the Eredivisie and even joined the Dutch national football under-14 team — the beginning of a life dedicated to football.
Looking back at his youth days, however, he does not sugarcoat things. “It didn’t go that well,” he admitted. “But luckily, the Philippines came along.”
Born to a Dutch father and a Filipino mother, Quincy was still eligible to play for the Philippines, even though he represented the Netherlands at the youth level. Thus, at the age of 16, he received a call-up to join the under-19 squad of his mother’s home country. He was the youngest on the squad at the time, and this marked his first taste of Philippine football.
Pocholo Bugas, on the other hand, grew up with Philippine football — though this wasn’t his first sport.
“I was a table tennis player,” he revealed. Even Quincy was surprised. “It’s weird, right?”
But similar to his Dutch teammate, Pocholo also had a family member who influenced him to play football: his older brother Paolo Bugas, who also plays professionally for PFL team Davao Aguilas.
“Before, [Paolo] used to give my [second-eldest] brother, his name is Checo, football boots…And I thought, ‘Oh I want that also.’
“That’s where it all started,” he said, very matter-of-factly. A pair of shoes was enough to get the nine-year-old Pocholo to switch sports — and to realize, very soon after, that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
Pocholo began making a name for himself as early as his high school days playing at Far Eastern University-Diliman, especially when he won the UAAP Juniors MVP award in Season 82. As a senior, he was already playing for the youth national teams and was beginning to catch the attention of professional clubs around the country.
Thus in 2020, the Davao de Oro native made a major decision. With some guidance from Philippine football veteran Stephan Schróck, who had expressed his admiration for the younger Bugas and praised his work ethic, he elected to go pro right out of high school.
Raising the standards
Quincy Kammeraad’s entry into the Philippines Football League was less than ideal, and that may be putting it lightly.
In 2017 — the same year the PFL was founded, supplanting the former United Football League — Kammeraad signed a contract with the now-defunct Global FC, a club that faced numerous allegations accusing them of failing to pay their players a few years ago. In a previous interview with a Dutch publication, Quincy revealed he was one of the unfortunate athletes caught on the short end of the stick during his first professional stint with the club.
A short six months later, he returned to the amateur level in the Netherlands, before eventually coming back to the Philippines in 2020 with the Azkals Development Team. By then, the league had gained a stronger sense of structure and stability, especially having been revived by a three-year sponsorship with Qatar Airways. However, the same year also marked the pandemic, which put the majority of the league’s matches on hold.
Quincy later spent the 2022-2023 season with Kaya-Iloilo FC before moving to One Taguig, the PFL club he currently represents. And over the years, he can say that the league has seen major improvements.
“The level has improved a lot. I think with the foreign players that are coming in, the half Filipinos that are coming in now as well, like at my club, One Taguig, I think we majority have either foreign players or half Filipinos. So the level is higher,” he explained.
The last few years did indeed see more players compete in the PFL. In 2023, for instance, the league reached its peak participation, with 17 teams competing in that year’s Copa Paulino Alcantara.
Pocholo agreed with the Dutch-Filipino’s assessment of its growth.
The homegrown Filipino talent has also been competing in the Philippines Football League since 2020 when he graduated from FEU-D and kicked off his career playing for United City.
“For me, I played two years before going to Cambodia, so basically, at the time, it was at a good level. Then after two years, [it continued to improve]. The competition is going well, and like what Quincy said, some foreigners are coming back here, making better standards,” Pocholo recounted.
As he preluded, the Filipino signed a contract with Angkor Tiger FC three years after he signed with United City, and he competed in the 2023-24 season of the Cambodian Premier League. This was a big honor for him.
“I was a Filipino kid playing abroad,” he recalled. “The pressure of a foreigner spot in a team, at first, it’s very hard, but then you slowly get the momentum of being there.”
Pocholo credited the growth of the PFL throughout the years, as well as his international playing experiences with the national team, as valuable moments in his career that helped him for a move abroad. Similarly, he also realized that playing abroad allowed him to mature, both on and off the field, which ultimately pushed him to become a better player.
Just like Quincy, the former UAAP Juniors MVP also found himself back in the Philippines Football League, where he currently plays for Kaya-Iloilo FC. Upon his return, he came back to discover a more competitive playing field.
Considering the progress the league has made in recent years, Quincy highlighted one of the big improvements he’s noticed: “The standard of the teams.”
“The standard just got much higher. Like the past years, it was always Kaya dominating, winning the league five, six games even before the season ended,” he continued.
“But if you look at it now, Kaya is one point ahead of Manila Diggers, and then between third and sixth [place on the standings], it’s only a three-point difference. The competition is tight, which is good for the players.”
At the time of this interview, the 24-year-old was focused on One Taguig’s next game against Cebu F.C. — which ended in a draw the next day, on March 8 — because of how tight the competition is. As of writing, Kaya and Manila Digger are in a close battle for the top spot of the table, with One Taguig trailing in third. Not only does this raise the level among players, but it also creates a more exciting league that fans will want to come back to.
The progress has been steady, as these players have experienced themselves. But naturally, there is still a lot of room to keep growing.
Opportunities to score
Professional football players spend their days training and competing, so they can’t be blamed for noticing the little things.
Quincy Kammeraad, for instance, first noticed the difference in the facilities when he moved here from the Netherlands. He elaborated, “I used to leave everything in the locker room — boots, gloves, clothes. Here, you have to bring everything. I think for me, I think that [is one difference], and the little things. Logistics.”
But as two players who have been in the league for a considerable amount of time now, they notice the bigger things, too.
For one thing, both national team players pointed out a particular trend among Filipino football players. As they have observed, footballers who grow up in the Philippines often reach a point in their playing careers, usually at the high school or college level, where they must make a choice: football or studies.
Even as someone who grew up in the academy football system in the Netherlands, Quincy noticed this trend among young players in the Philippines.
“It’s gonna sound harsh,” he preluded, “but players here that I see, very talented players in the UAAP have to choose between finishing their degree or playing pro…Here, you see players coming into the pros at 24 or 25 where at that point, you should be in your prime already…
“I think there should be a meeting point where players can still finish their education, but also pursue playing football for a living.”
Having grown up through the local grassroots programs of the country, Pocholo revealed that this is a trend he’s seen among players he knows personally. To focus on his own career, even he opted to pursue a professional career instead of playing in college.
“Studies [is a big challenge]. For example, there are talented players, but they stop because of studies and stuff like that…I have many friends and schoolmates who have done it. Especially [those who] nalulong sa bisyo,” Pocholo recognized.
Beyond this, the PFL players would also like to see more progress in the provincial areas of the country. In their eyes, this could boost football in the Philippines in a lot of different ways.
Pocholo, who hails from Nabunturan in Davao de Oro, noted that the players in the provinces need more opportunities to play. “We need to have grassroots there. They don’t have proper football clinics because they can’t afford what the Manila kids do — to pay for their football and education,” the 23-year-old remarked.
In an archipelago composed of thousands of islands, quality grassroots programs are centralized in the Luzon region for the most part, but it’s not everyone gets the opportunity to travel from outside NCR just to play.
Kammeraad agrees with Bugas, that development in provinces should be a priority to push football forward. But apart from establishing more grassroots programs, the Dutchman addresses the need for more quality pitches in the provincial areas as well.
“I would say do what Thailand or Cambodia or Malaysia is doing. Right now, we have most of the clubs based in Manila, but I would like to play in Barotac Nuevo or play a game in another province,” Quincy elaborated.
“I hope each team can get their own stadium. It doesn’t even have to be big…So you can get a community there. The city will really support the club…
“For me, that’s where it starts. Then you get your local LGU behind it, you get people from the province, or your city to fully support the club. If you can fill up [venues], there will always be two to three little kids that will want to be like them, and that’s how it starts rolling, and to get more teams.”
Sharpening the knife
All of this is not to discount the leaps and bounds of Philippine football’s growth over the past several years. If anything, one could easily argue that the momentum of the sport on a local level is going at its fastest rate ever.
More youth academies are being established, such as Barca Academy Manila and the Villareal Philippines Academy, presenting more opportunities for young players to play the game.
The national teams have also been making noise on the radar. The women’s team is currently hunting for a second World Cup appearance, while the men’s team is coming off a historic run at the 2024 ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup, a motivational boost just before they take on the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers.
Football pitches, both big and small, are also beginning to grow in number. The Mall of Asia Football Pitch, for instance, is a prime example of this. The Rizal Memorial Stadium is also getting its own makeover, and the pitch at the New Clark City Stadium is said to be of AFC standards.
But most of all, the talent in the country is growing, both in number and level.
Quincy, who also does goalkeeping coaching on the side of his playing career, has seen it for himself. “I train in a goalkeeper academy where there’s loads of goalkeepers coming up where you have a lot of potential. And I’m sure there’s more that just can’t afford to play football.”
But apart from the young talents rising through the pipelines right now, Kammeraad also acknowledges the current players now: “I think Jax [Peña], Sandro [Reyes], even Cholo [Bugas], and Amani [Aguinaldo] are the best examples that you can play football if you come from the Philippines.”
Pocholo sees the expansive talent among young Filipino players today, too, especially those from the provinces, and he hopes that their potential eventually becomes fully realized.
There may be many steps forward still yet to be taken, but the country is making headway, and every win — even the smallest of wins — breathes life into the renaissance the sport is currently experiencing.
Prompting these two young players to think ahead to the faraway future, to the day they both retire, The GAME asked them to envision their ideal state of football in the Philippines by that time.
Straightforward as ever Quincy answered, “Structured.”
Pocholo had to agree. “He describes it so well, this is the only answer,” he said with a laugh.
But the homegrown talent did have his own words to share when asked to describe the current state of the Philippine football scene:
“Leveling up.”
Text ANNIKA CANIZA
Photography MELODY SANTOS assisted by KARLO BAYLON, MIGHT CHRISTIAN MERCADO, CEDIE BARRAMEDA, JEREMIAH SANTOS
Creative Direction CAS ASEOCHE
Sittings Editor ANNIKA CANIZA
Shot on Location SM MALL OF ASIA FOOTBALL PITCH
Production Coordination ANTHONY MENDOZA
Special Thanks PHILIPPINE MEN’S NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM