Pinoy in FIFA World Cup

Even as the Philippines has never qualified to play in the FIFA World Cup for men, there was a Pinoy presence at the 2018 edition in Moscow and still is in this year’s competition in Qatar through France’s back-up goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It’s the second straight World Cup for Areola, who’s in the rotation with starting keeper Hugo Lloris, 35, and Zaire-born Steve Mandanda, 37.

Areola, 29, seems to be the future of French football when it comes to goal-keeping. Lloris and Mandanda joined Les Bleus in 2008. Areola made his debut 10 years later. Both Lloris and Mandanda are 6-2 while Areola is a towering 6-5. Lloris, the French captain, has 142 caps and Mandanda, 35. Areola has five senior caps. In Qatar, Lloris has yielded three goals so far and Mandanda, one. France’s record is 3-1 with a quarterfinal match against England next on Sunday. France opened with a 4-1 win over Australia then tripped Denmark, 2-1, before losing a no-bearing 1-0 match to Tunisia. In the Round of 16, the defending champion took out Poland, 3-1.

In three World Cup qualifying windows from April last year, France compiled a record of 7-0-3 with victories over Bosnia Herzegovina (1-0), Kazakhstan twice (2-0, 8-0), Finland twice (2-0, 2-0), Ivory Coast (2-1) and South Africa (3-0). The ties were with Ukraine twice (1-1) and Bosnia Herzegovina (1-1). To prepare for the World Cup, France had a disastrous campaign in the Nations League from last June to September, winning only once (2-0 over Austria), losing thrice (twice to Denmark, 2-0, 2-1, and Croatia, 1-0) and drawing twice (1-1 with Austria and Croatia). At the 2018 World Cup, France thumped Croatia, 4-2, in the final.

This year’s World Cup started with 32 qualifiers, including automatic entry Qatar which became the first host to lose every match, the earliest host to be eliminated and the second host not to advance beyond the first stage after South Africa in 2010. The next World Cup will showcase 48 nations in 2026 with three host countries Canada, Mexico and the US. Since 1930, there have been 22 World Cups, counting Qatar, and Brazil has won the most trophies with five.

Areola is an academy graduate of Paris Saint Germain and on loan to Villareal in 2015-16, was unbeaten in 37 games for a period of 620 minutes without conceding a goal. He joined West Ham of the English Premier League last year for a fee estimated to be the equivalent of P710 million and the contract expires in 2027. His salary is the equivalent of P207 million a year. Areola’s parents Cleto and Heidi are full-blooded Filipinos who migrated to France as overseas workers employed by a wealthy French couple in the late 1980s. He was born in Paris and started playing football at six and was sent to a camp by his parents’ employer with the employer’s son. In 2014, Areola was voted Eurosports’ Revelation of the Year and two years later, was the UEFA Champions League Breakthrough awardee. In 2014, he married long-time girlfriend Marrion Valette, a French model of Philippine-Lebanese descent. The couple has three children Ayleen-Grace, 7, Aymma-Lyse, 5, and Ayva-May, 2. In 2011, the Philippine Football Federation tried to recruit Areola for the Azkals but he decided to keep his options open with Les Bleus since he had seen action for France at every youth level since 1999 and FIFA allows a player to suit up for only one country in his football career.