Mindanaotoday.com | PAF legend Yanti Barsales an inspiration to young players
By: Jack Biantan
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Philippine Air Force booter Yanti Barsales has shrugged off a traumatic experience during a national championship to become a legend.
The 50-year-old former Philippine Air Force striker was in Cagayan de Oro City to lead the PAF Legends team to the 40-above title in the 2nd 4ID Diamond Cup Football Festival at the Camp Evangelista.
He was among the more than 30 footballers and officials of the Philippine Air Force Football Club who showed up for the festival upon the invitation of the 4ID Diamond officials
In 1989 at a very young age of 15, Yanti was accused of cheating his age in the National Championship of the Coke Go-For-Goal in Bacolod City.
I was a fan of Yanti when he was leading the PAF football team during the ‘90s when the Philippine Azkals were not yet on the thoughts of local football fans.
I was starstruck when I met the soft spoken Ilonggo at Camp Evangelista last Sunday (Feb. 12) after 34 years since that highly controversial week at the Paglaum stadium in Bacolod City.
He was the star striker of the highly favored Barotac Nuevo team of Iloilo during the national finals of the Coke Go-For-Goal.
I was only young coach leading a very young Salazar Institute of Technology/Don Bosco Boys Home-Cebu team.
No ordinary boy
Yanti was only 15 in that national competition for boys born 1973 and above. But Yanti then was not an ordinary boy. He was all muscled, highly skillful and fully fit.
He came from a poor family and he was used to hard work when he was a kid growing up in Magpet, Catabato, 38 minutes away from Kidapawan City, Cotabato.
He discovered football rather late when his family moved to Iloilo. He was already in high school while studying at the Iloilo State College of Fisheries (ISCF) in Tiwi, Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo when he started playing the beautiful game.
It was also during those first two years while studying at the ISCF when he added more muscles working in the fishponds while studying.
Those muscles and his ability to strike the football like an adult, shocked the players and the coaches in Bacolod.
Then, I would not believe that this boy could run that fast and kick so hard was only 15.
The Barotac team bulldozed my team Salazar Institute of Technology/Don Bosco Boys Home Cebu in the elimination.
We shocked them in the first 10 minutes when our star striker Victor Pacquit scored a go-ahead goal from the halfway line.
Pacquit found the goalkeeper outside the penalty box as the Barotac boys were charging full blast for an opening goal.
Unfortunately for them Pacquit saw the bored goalkeeper and once he got the ball he struck it above his head and into the back of the net.
It was a short minute of glorious joy for us as the goal woke up the Barotac boys and then unleashed the 15-year-old monster from Magpet.
Yanti then led the charge scoring a hattrick and leaving us helpless as if we were run over by a 120 km per hour charging Ceres bus.
The game finished with us trying to hide our heads in our boots as Barotac smashed in three more goals for a 1-6 final score.
Barotac boys
The Barotac boys then whipped Davao 3-0 with Yanti scoring one goal. They then had to face Silliman University to battle for which team would top the group.
Silliman then was led by the bull strong, fantastic and good looking Yoldie brothers. They were a force on the pitch.
Against us they scored only two goals one of which was an own goal by defender Rodney Raynon.
Silliman was strong and well coached by Dumaguete’s legendary coach Noel Arevalo. Against Barotac, it was a see-saw battle that ended in a nil-nil draw.
The Barotac boys scored six goals against us, putting them up front in our group and would face the second placer of the other group De La Salle Zobel of NCR in the semis.
Silliman would face West Negros College of host Bacolod City in the other semis match.
We had an early vacation and we enjoyed a trip to Don Bosco Victorias where we were welcomed by the Salesians.
Controversy
But controversy brewed the night before the semis as one of the coaches from the remaining three teams wrote a letter of protest alleging that Yanti was over age.
The letter was signed by all the other coaches including me. I was thinking that since we were already out it does not matter.
Without any proof, the protest was entertained by the organizers. The protest broke the hearts of the Barotac boys specially Yanti. Their morale fell from 100 to zero.
Yanti was called by the organizers to face an “inquiry.” Imagine a 15-year-old facing an inquisition like investigation.
He was alone in front of those old men, questioning his eligibility and integrity.
Yanti was strong, with a hard body developed by working hard in the fishponds of Barotac Nuevo.
In face of the inquiry, he was only a 15-year-old boy. They did not find any evidence that he was overaged.
“I was completely shocked. I was young and in face of those people I was devastated,” Yanti revealed in an interview right after a match during the Diamond Cup Football Festival.
The next day, against De La Salle Zobel, the Barotac boys were a different team. They played with their morale left inside their dressing room.
De La Salle Zobel
De La Salle Zobel of coach Hans Smit were full of energy. They could do no wrong and in the end advanced to the final with a 2-0 victory.
The Barotac boys marched out of the pitch with bowed heads and still thinking what hit them.
Silliman beat West Negros College 1-0 in the other semis clash to advance to the championship against Hans Smit team.
The Dumaguete boys then went on to win the 1989 National Coke Go-For-Goal title after beating De La Salle 3-0.
The Barotac boys were supposed to win the title but someone conspired to accuse Yanti of cheating.
I was one of those who signed the letter of protest. I now apologize to Yanti and to the Barotac team.
After that tournament Yanti did not get discouraged and resumed his football career.
He vindicated himself few years later when he led Iloilo to the U19 Adidas Cup title and then winning the Most Valuable Player award.
Yanti then became a member of the Philippine National Football team in 1992 until 2001. He enlisted with the Philippine Air Force and played for them for 28 years until his retirement in 2022.
Yanti had a colorful career with PAF. However, he could not forget his best game with the club in the United Football League against Kaya FC then manned by the Younghusband brothers Phil and James.
He scored the second goal to cement their title and was awarded the Golden Ball Award and the Agility Award.
Yanti’s most memorable stint with the National team was in 2001 against Syria where he scored their lone goal in the 1-7 loss.
The men’s national team were not known
as the Alkalis yet during that time. Support for them were limited and the tournaments they participated in were a few.
Presently
Presently, Yanti lives with his wife Gemma Araneta Barsales and his children Mariel, Marvin, Marvic and Marian at the DECA Homes in Clark, Angeles City, Pampanga.
Mariel is also with the PAF, while Marvin is applying also to be with the PAF. His other two children are still in school.
Yanti at age 50, has availed with the optional retirement program of the PAF having been in service for 28 years.
He has retired as a serviceman but he continues to help with the PAF football program in Clark.
He is not only a role model to the young Airmen who have just enlisted to play for PAF football team but also to the young boys and girls who are just starting to play the sport.
Yanti, despite of some failures in the past has not stopped playing the beautiful game. At age 50 he is still reliable in front of the goal.
He just proved it by leading the PAF to the title in the 40-Above category of the Diamond Cup. (jackbiantan@yahoo.com) (MT)
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