RP Futkaleros join Street Child World Cup

PIER DOS, Tondo -- He grew up inside a truck yard--a little boy dwarfed by 18-wheelers maneuvering non-stop to and from the gates. An almost-permanent cloud of dust is kicked about by the many turning wheels, or the occasional breeze wafting from the sea. There is nothing in this place but rubber, steel, grease, and dirt. But to 15-year-old Roberto Orlandez, this is home.

“The moment you go outside in the morning, you’re surrounded by the dust, and you breathe in the fumes from trucks. You try to bathe it off, but our water comes from a pipe in the sea, it has algae,” he says.

Make no mistake, though. Roberto and his family don’t stick out from the scene like characters out of place. From the way they talk of home, one wouldn’t realize that they were talking about a rusty, discarded container van that the trucking company didn’t bother to dispose of. So, the Orlandez family blends into the background, like all the other families who have managed to crawl into other corroded containers.

Like many boys his age, Roberto dreamt of making it big. But in the truck yard, there were no doctors to look up to, no lawyers, no businessmen to emulate. There was only one position of power to admire around here. And that was what Roberto wanted to be.

“Living here among so many trucks, I dreamed of someday becoming a truck driver, too,” he says.

Here in Tondo, the poorest and the most densely populated district in the Philippines, many boys share the same fate as Roberto. Ask them what they want to be, and they will tell you that they want to be tricycle drivers, salespersons at the local mall, vendors at the market, owners of their own passenger jeepney. Their world has become so small, their expectations so managed, and with good reason.

In the Philippines, very few people who live in the cycle of poverty ever get the chance to escape from it.

But one thing happened to Roberto that changed his life. He was given a football. And he kicked it with all his might.

The magic of football

“When I learned to play, and I got good at it, my dreams changed, they got bigger,” said Roberto. “I don’t want to be a truck driver anymore. I want to be a football player for the Philippine Team.”

One would wonder how a simple sport could change a life. How a ball could possibly alter a little boy’s fate. But it happened for Roberto.

First, he joined a team of football players in Tondo who began calling their game Futkal, or Futbol sa Kalye. They are a group of ragtag teens – gang members, meatshop vendors, pedicab drivers – who were convinced to try the game, and not be discouraged by the fact that there were no green fields in the slums of Tondo.

Roberto and the Futkaleros played anywhere, in the streets, in their school, in the local basketball courts. Soon enough, their skills grew, and so did their love for the sport. Many quit their jobs and went back to school, after learning that football could actually land them a college scholarship.

Street child World Cup

And with the heart of a Tondo kid, and a desire to get his family out of their container van life, Roberto then left the truck yard and tried out for the Street Child World Cup, an international competition of children from poor backgrounds coming from all over the world.

Street Child World Cup aims to give street children a voice, and a chance to rise from the conditions they were born into.

“When you live in a place like this, you should really have the courage to dream. It’s important to aim for something, because if you don’t, you’ll never leave this place. You’ll be stuck here for the rest of your life. You will amount to nothing,” he says.

For months, Roberto trained and tried out with boys and girls from orphanages, from the streets, or from informal homes like his own. Those who will be picked in the 10-member football team will compete in South Africa against street children from eight other nations, namely Brazil, Tanzania, United Kingdom, South Africa, Ukraine, Nicaragua, India, and Vietnam.

And when the final roster was announced, there was his name, next to a position so befitting of his mission in life - ROBERTO ORLANDEZ: GOALIE.

“Pasalubong, Roberto!”

On Thursday afternoon, the revving of trucks wasn’t the prevailing sound in the truck yard at Pier Dos. It was laughter. Hours before Roberto was set to fly to South Africa, his coaches and teammates from Team Futkal of Tondo surprised him with pansit (noodles), and a gallon of ice cream.

“We’re so proud to be your teammate. I’m so proud that you’re going to another country. But you’re my best friend, and I’ll miss you,” a weeping 15-year old Papu Corsame blurted out. The other boys looked away, not wanting to show their own tears. Other resorted to joking about Roberto’s Philippine Team uniform, saying they wanted it for their own.

One by one, the Futkaleros gave Roberto letters that they wrote, and a card that bore photographs of their training days on the streets. Just for that moment, the boys shed the toughness of Tondo, and showed Roberto how much they loved him and looked up to him. But in the eyes of these boys, Roberto is more than just a teammate who made it big. Roberto is their future, Roberto can be them, if they tried as hard as he did. His success shattered the walls that used to trap these children in a life of never-ending poverty.

This is a story of just one of the 10 children now carrying the Philippine flag in the Street Child World Cup. One can only expect the same magic in the stories of the nine others, most of whom came from orphanages, some from the slums: Erica Mae Inocencio (Team Captain), John Robert Gaerlan (defense), Jayson Simangan (defense), Ladylyn Ampe (striker), Mario Titoy (midfield), Noriel Pineones (midfield), Raymond Ilona (right wing), and Lorelyn Cabanayan (striker) with reserves Jonah Garrido and Gerry Boy Joaquino.

Their first opponent, Tanzania. Next up is the children from football country Brazil. There is no telling if the Philippine Team will be able to bring home the cup after 2 weeks of competition. Of course, they want to win. But perhaps, there is one thing they must understand – that the moment they started to dream, they were winners already.