Cortal SQR shows Azkals advertising potential

MANILA—Combined, the three distinguished gentlemen could very well be the repository of Philippine football history.

And it doesn’t take long for them to shake off the cobwebs in their memories to see way back to those days when Philippine football was actually relevant in the Asian scene.

“We used to have big European teams coming here for friendlies,” said Vic Sison, a goalkeeper of the last Philippine team that defeated current Asian powerhouse Japan—in the Asian Games held in Tokyo to boot.

Sison is a former Mr. Football, back in the day when winners of such trophy from the Philippine Sportswriters Association mean national recognition. With him at the Philippine Football Federation office for a football chat one afternoon was a fellow recipient of the Mr. Football award, Mariano “Nonong” Araneta, also the president of the PFF.

The third fellow was former PFF president and chair emeritus Johnny Romualdez. Araneta played several positions for the PH team before settling at midfield while Romualdez was a former left wing for the national squad.

The three of them have seen it all in football, from its initial high to the abysmal depths that it plunged to—Romualdez and Araneta traded horror stories of getting clobbered by huge margins overseas—to the renaissance of the sport lately.

And they can only smile when talk centers on the Azkals, the nickname of the current national squad that has become the darlings of the Philippine sporting world.

“They really breathed life into the sport and now, we have received attention like we never had before,” said Araneta. “Now, we have sponsors pouring in to support the national team and that’s good for the sport.”

And the team members have been getting endorsement deals left and right, which is important because of one fact very few people know about the Azkals: Except for allowances from the PSC, they don’t get any other monthly stipend. Their love for the game and their passion for playing for flag and country is augmented financially by salaries from their club teams here and abroad and endorsement deals.

Luckily, the Azkals are a hit among companies looking for fresh sporting endorsers.

One such company is Cortal SQR, the latest pain-reliever to hit pharmacy shelves.

“We think the Team Azkals best represents what Cortal SQR wants to tell the public—we can overcome pain to succeed,” said Lito Tadena, president of Pharma-Rex, Inc., the official marketer of Cortal SQR.

Cortal SQR has linked up with the national football squad and positioned itself as the official pain reliever of the Azkals.

“Our campaign is anchored on the Azkals’ battle cry ‘We Believe,’ which upholds Filipinos’ determination to win and our ‘Sa Cortal SQR, Kaya Mo Yan’ which highlights our countrymen’s resilience against pain and obstacles,” explained Tadena. “Hence the birth of the campaign ‘We Believe, Kaya Mo Yan.”

The Azkals click with endorsers because they click with market. But what makes the Azkals tick with the market?

Tough to say. It maybe because they came at a time when football, a popular sport whose wide but long-dormant fan base has been rumbling beneath the surface, burst into the open with victories abroad.

A simple Twitter survey revealed that much.

As @chiplopez14 posted: “The fact that the Azkals have revived the support for the beautiful game is already something else.”

Or, more than just the beautiful game, it could be the beautiful people. One Twitter user from football-crazy Dubai said lots of fans admit that midfielder Stephan “Schrock’s abs” and the other lookers on the squad are a major draw.

The Azkals have also revived people’s faith in the little fellow, as one Twitter user explained.

“[T]hey make it exciting because they make me believe we have a chance!” said @tequilamela.

The Azkals could be a product of several admirable factors. And the confluence of these factors have created a phenomenon that companies like Cortal SQR have hitched on to create a mutually beneficial relationship: Endorsements that help support the national athletes and national athletes who raise public awareness on certain products.

“They’ve really changed the sport,” said Romualdez. “Nowadays, a lot of kids already want to pick up football as their summer sport. Clinics have to turn back kids because there’s just too many who want to learn it.”

Now, the PFF no longer has to worry about how the national team players will earn their keep while playing for the national team.

“Now, we can concentrate on giving them bonuses every time they win games,” said Araneta.

Sison, who has batted for players to have livelihood so they can focus on training, added “at least now, because of these endorsements, they have something to tide them over while training for the national team.”

Indeed, Philippine football never had it so good.