Mindanaotoday.com | Sportsman owner of MGV has a big heart for football
By: Jack Biantan
CAGAYAN de Oro City — “This is for the youth of Cagayan de Oro City,” MGV Sports Center owner Edgardo Sytiongsa said when I asked him on why he decided to re-open his football facility in barangay Carmen this city.
He said the Cagayan de Oro City football community needs this facility to train kids to be good footballers. “If we have good football players we can give them good future to become good professionals later on,” he said.
His vision for the youth of Cagayan de Oro, has gotten a boast also as the Little Me Academy Football Club (LMAFC) is helping him re-build the facility. The facility has been abandoned since early 2020 when all sporting activities in the country was halted because of the COVID pandemic.
LMAFC started to cut the grown grasses and trees on the pitches and has cleaned its surroundings. According to LMAFC owner Ike Olandesca, the facility will be ready soon and they will make a standard field and excellent facilities to serve the community. When it will be ready, tournaments will be held and the facility will welcome other clubs or school for training.
Little Me Academy Football Club has also cooperated with the the country’s top professional football club, the Stallions Laguna FC to provide the professional football training for the players.
The MGV Sport Center used to be named as the Westridge Sports Park. Sytiongsa is a golfer and his two sons also play golf. He is also a football fan. Westridge then was a golfing range when Tiger Woods was still very popular.
Sytiongsa then turned this vast property in front of the Country Village Hotel in Carmen, into a football facility for young players when football started to become popular in the city.
The facility has one big pitch at the center, one seven-aside pitch and two five-aside pitches at the sides.
It was heaven for the CdO football community. It hosted several local and national competitions and has become a training facility for different local clubs.
I have even organized several football festivals in the facility in 2016 and 2017 when I was still employed with Sun*Star Cagayan de Oro. Many tournaments were lined-up for the facilities in 2019 and 2020 until COVID halted all sporting events in the country on March of 2020.
Sytiongsa even gave me two steal goals for my Lumbia Raptors football club in 2015 when I asked for the donation. He is not only a sportsman he also has a good heart.
He could have turned his vast property into mall or a food court ang make millions or he could even sell it to the different mall operators to make billions but he does not. Instead, he turns it into a football facility for young players. Who does that? Only a person who truly loves the beautiful game. (jackbiantantambok@gmail.com)
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