Kenshiro Daniels, born in California and who played for Riverside La Sierra High School, is now playing midfield for Kaya FC in the UFL in the Philippines. I can't find a date of birth, but it looks like he finished high school in 2012. http://www.pe.com/sports/high-schoo...-boys-soccer-daniels-is-la-sierras-closer.ece He has an interesting background -- son of a Filipina mother and a English father, who happens to be an actor and World Light-heavyweight Kickboxing Champion, Gary Daniels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Daniels). Dad named him after a role he played in a movie. Some of that confidence may have come two years ago, when Daniels had a chance to go live with an uncle who was a coach for a semi-pro team in New Zealand and suggested his nephew play soccer in the under-19 division. Kenshiro confirmed his birth in the US in this long thread: http://ask.fm/kenshirodaniels According to Transfermarkt, he has scored 3 goals in 7 matches this season: http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/kenshiro-daniels/profil/spieler_307435.html He was recently called up by Tom Dooley to the full Philippines National Team and is in line to earn his first caps: http://the-pff.org/website/pff-calls-up-azkals-for-malaysia-and-azerbaijan-friendlies/
A nice little onslaught of Yank goals in this one for Kaya: FT- Kaya FC 3-1 Pasargad FCGoal scorer: PSG-Hamed Fateh 39'Kaya- Kenshiro Daniels 51'Oj Porteria 74' 81'— UFLphilippines (@UFLphilippines) February 6, 2014 Kaya FC has 6 Yanks on the team, according to Transfermarkt: Alexander Borromeo Jonahan Romero Anton del Rosario Fabien Lewis (T&T youth NT -- no independent confirmation of US citizenship, but he lived in US for long time) Kenshiro Daniels OJ Porteria
Romero no longer plays for Kaya. He moved to Loyola last year, and now appears to be playing for Rovers DI in Guam (which technically makes him not a YA any more). I also can't find any mention of Fabien Lewis on the Kaya FC or UFL websites. This tweet makes me think he left the team in December.
Pic of both Yank teenagers(Porteria and Daniels) on Kaya FC. Both are members of the Azkal pool and have been called up for friendlies in March and April.
Nope. He has answered this in a Q&A somewhere, but he is named after a character his dad played in a movie.
The Philippines' Imported National Soccer Team https://sports.vice.com/en_us/artic...nal-soccer-team/?utm_source=vicesportstwitter "With all the typhoons and heavy rainfall, it's near impossible to maintain good quality, natural grass fields," says striker Kenshiro Daniels. The 20-year-old from Irvine, California (whose dad was a Hollywood action fighter) now plays professionally in Manila. "When I first arrived, my first few games were on natural caribou grass, and when it rained everything was just a mess," Daniels said. "There was no way there could be quality games or training going on. But since then, there have been artificial turf pitches showing up, which has helped immensely and the sport has already grown since I arrived three years ago." Daniels is one of four North Americans on the books at Kaya FC, who just finished fourth in the Philippines' ten-team United Premier League.
He is playing in the AFC Cup (AFC's Champions League): http://www.foxsportsasia.com/footba...m214962/kaya-fc-overcome-balestier-khalsa-fc/
He also scored the 2nd goal(a beauty of a goal) as well as an assist from a corner in their 4th game in the AFC Cup group stage which Kaya won 3-0 over Balestier Khalsa of Singapore. Kaya FC is now top of their group after 4 games in the AFC Cup with 9 points and will most likely reach the round of 16 in the next few games. He has developed quite well at Kaya FC since arriving as a youngster a few years ago. BTW, the AFC Cup is the equivalent of the Europa League(UEFA) of Asia, not the Champion's League which is a different competition that involves champion teams from stronger countries like Australia, Japan and S Korea. The AFC Cup is Asia's 2nd tier club international competition. Here is a feature article on him from a few years ago describing how he was born in California a few minutes from the beach, grew up as a die hard Manchester United fan just like his kickboxing champion father, started playing at 3 y/o, his exploits as a soccer superstar as a youth player in the US, and his decision to pursue a professional footballing career at a very young age which led him to play in semi pro league in New Zealand as a 15 y/o for a few months and finally signing with a professional league in the Philippines at the age of 16. He was named after a character his father played in a movie. His older brother is also a professional stuntman and parkour practitioner and played as a stunt double in recent movies like The Maze Runner, Divergent, or 300: Rise of an Empire. http://www.kayafc.com/kenshiro-daniels-kicking-back/ “I love scoring. I was born to score. Literally in every single league I’ve played in my life, I was always top goal scorer until I moved to the Philippines. I’ve grown up as a center forward my whole life, and then when I came to the Philippines, I started playing wide on the left.”
Lewis, Romero and del Rosario are no longer with Kaya FC. del Rosario is with Loyola now. As far as I know Lewis is not American. Al Borromeo is back with the team after spending a long time recovering from his knee injury. Aside from Porteria and Daniels, Fil Am Miguel Tanton has also joined Kaya FC and the Azkals. Miguel on his debut for the national team as a starter no less, provided the fantastic backheel that allowed Ott to score against North Korea. As far as I know Tanton doesn't have a thread on the Yanks Aboard thread yet so I am adding one.
Another Fil American at Kaya FC I forgot to mention is Antonio Ugarte who hails from San Francisco, California.
That's awesome I love to hear more Fil Ams making an impact in the Philippines. Hopefully they can make it here to in mls.
As I mentioned on his own thread Antonio Ugarte is interesting because he is trying to be the third generation of Ugartes after his grandfather, granduncle and uncle, to try to make it to the Philippine national football team. Antonio, of course, would be the first generation born in the US. The others, of Spanish heritage, were born and raised in the Philippines from a family deeply involved with football. Being players on the national team is a family tradition they are deeply proud of and would like to continue. I will add more threads if other Fil Ams make an impact in the Philippines. Aside from being football players, they all have interesting backstories to tell.
Wow! That'd be quite the story. Well now I'm rooting for this kid lol. Azkals are looking up atm with the higher FIFA ranking and such. I'm not sure I could say the same about the UFL though because I just don't know, what would be your opinion?
The UFL has been surprising many observers in Asia. They didn't even have a club in the AFC Cup 2 years ago. Now, all of a sudden, their 2 representatives, Kaya FC and Ceres Lasalle, are topping both their groups in this international club competition and are favored to advance to the knockout stage, where I think they have the potential to advance deep. Just like the national team, the UFL has been improving a lot and surprising other teams from Asia.
Here is Antonio's grandparent and granduncle on the Philippine national team from the 1930 Far Eastern Games
That's great to hear!! The national league is extremely important to the success of the national team even if many are half Filipino
As well as full Filipinos(both parents come from the Philippines) who were born and trained abroad. The locals in the UFL have also improved a lot because of their exposure to foreign trained players and coaches from all over the world.
Flashback 2011 Former and current national team players Borromeo, Phil and James Younghusband with LA Galaxy's Landon Donovan and David Beckham when the club visited and played the national team in the Philippines 5 years ago.
Bagged a couple of goals in a blowout: http://www.spin.ph/football/ufl/new...c-cup-knockout-stage-with-resounding-ufl-wins Kaya, which lost to Stallion FC, 1-0, last Sunday, drew four goals from Robert Mendy, while Louis Clark and Kenshiro Daniels registered a brace each, and Eric Giganto and Sean Kane added one apiece.
Starts: Ref gets his 1st start in between the sticks, while Jalsor & the Angeles twins start against their former club. #UnaKaya! pic.twitter.com/hwpWcZlVxs— Kaya Futbol Club (@KayaFC) June 24, 2017
Starts: Marwin returns in place of the suspended Reed. Plus, Woody is back and could feature as a substitute! Livestream: https://t.co/Wy2SS5NZ8c pic.twitter.com/cweXzeYQjk— Kaya Futbol Club (@KayaFC) July 19, 2017
Started in 2-1 loss: Ugarte returns to the starting lineup for the first time since May 24!UPDATED LIVE STREAM LINK: https://t.co/5ZUbBrj1w1 pic.twitter.com/yulImy895s— Kaya Futbol Club (@KayaFC) August 5, 2017
They have a new FilAm player on the national team who has been called up for the first time for the AC qualifier against Yemen. Tyler Matas, who has played every minute for league leading Meralco Sparks in the PFL was PacWest Preseason Defender of the Year(in 2014 and 2015) while playing for Notre Dame de Namur University. He is a long throw specialist. Daniels is injured and was not called up.