David Alaba and the (Pinoy) red, white, and blue


Bayern Munich is anxious to get a goal after Borussia Dortmund tied with a penalty in the 68th minute. It’s the Champions League finals at Wembley Stadium in London, their 3rd appearance in four years. After last year’s disappointing finish at home to Chelsea, they badly wanted a win.

Eight minutes after the equalizer, the ball finds David Alaba. Player for Austria’s national team. Son to a Filipina mother.

The 20-year-old left back has been in Pinoy football fans’ consciousness as early as 2010 . The post-Suzuki Cup Azkals craze led to a frenzy of online searches for Filipino-blooded foreign players who could play for the country. Alaba’s name surfaced before the hype, but he was already tied to Austria after being capped to the national team at age 17.

Back to the championship game, Alaba strike sfrom 20 yards. He has done this before: a dipping kick from beyond the box against Juventus in the Champions League quarterfinals  25.02 seconds into the game, the league’s 7th fastest in its history.

This time, however, Dortmund’s Roman Weidenfeller punches the ball away as it dives toward the same area that Juventus goalie Gianluigi Buffon failed to keep.

Alaba’s stint for Austria makes one wonder: does he acknowledge his Filipino roots? More than the fascination on overseas players suiting up for the Azkals, there’s the enchanted dream of seeing a Pinoy booter play for a huge overseas club that will win a much-coveted cup and wear the red, white, and blue with three stars and a sun over his shoulders or around his waist.

Arjen Robben found himself inside the box to strike as Weidenfeller could only look from his shoulder. At the 89th minute, he won the Champions League for Bayern, for his teammates, for David Alaba.

The team goes wild at the final whistle. Robben slides on the field and breaks down. He has been denied of the cup too many times at this stage and finally, he has won it. Dortmund could only watch as Bayern Munich line up for a guard of honor as courtesy to the runners up.

Then there he was, David Alaba, standing with a stitched-together Nigerian and Philippine flag around his waist. If there’s any question on him acknowledging his Filipino heritage roots, this gesture was the closest thing that Pinoy fans could get to a definite question, screengrabbed and shared for everyone to see.

There’s the red, white, and blue with three stars in the sun at Wembley.

Screengrab uploaded on the PHL Azkals Facebook page

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I wrote this on Sunday morning.