MANILA – Filipino naturalization candidate Bienvenido Marañon admitted it was Ilonggo booter Emelio “Chieffy” Caligdong who inspired him during his early years in the country as a football player.
The Spanish striker said he was struggling in his early months with Ceres-Negros Football Club (now United City Football Club) before seeing Caligdong, a Filipino football icon and former captain of the Philippine Azkals.
“When I came to the Philippines, in my first month it wasn’t easy. I didn’t play really good, I wasn’t happy with my performance,” Marañon said in an interview with One Sports’ The Game.
“I was thinking about, ‘what Filipino player is similar to me and is one of the best in the Philippines?’ So I looked at Chieffy Caligdong and it is him,” said the United City Football Club star.
According to Marañon, his fascination to Caligdong led him to watch the Ilonggo football player in his Azkals practice at Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. He also studied Caligdong’s moves.
“I went to Rizal many times to watch him, I watched many videos of him, and that made me play better,” Marañon said. “So if you see me before I looked at him and after, you will see the change.”
“He (Caligdong) plays very good between the lines, he has too much quality, he doesn’t like to dribble too much, so he passes the ball then he moves to receive along. So all of this movement and all of this play, I got from him,” he added.
Caligdong was a key figure for Azkals before where he scored 16 international goals. Following his retirement, he had a brief coaching career before migrating to Canada recently.
Since then, Marañon was one of the key players for the United City Football Club. The Spanish striker even became the Asian Football Confederation’s Cup all-time leading scorer with 35 goals to his name in March 2020.
“I have to thank him, even if I think he doesn’t know anything about this,” the Cadiz, Spain-born Marañon said. “If I am lucky to get that one (become an Azkal), I will take my chance and I will try to make all of you proud of me.”/PN
