FILIPINO-AMERICAN football prodigy Javier Jacutin Mariona has received offers from top clubs in Europe.
His Oro native grandfather Dicky Jacutin said his grandchild has impressed some clubs in Europe particularly in UK but his parents have to turn them down.
Javier’s El Salvadorean father Rodrigo and Filipina mother Marisue Jacutin have not given their permission for the 12-year-old prodigy to continue his football education far from home.
Dicky said his parents find him too young yet to be left alone in a foreign land to pursue his football education.
They prefer him to continue his education in the US with the MLS club San Jose-Earthquakes where he is a regular in their academy.
Marisue is Dicky and Suzette Jacutin’s eldest child. They migrated to the US several years ago to be with Marisue who was on a tennis scholarship at the Oklahoma University.
Marisue was also a Philippine national tennis player. She played in the Southest Asian Games.
Dicky, however, did not name which clubs were interested to sign up Javier for their academy teams.
Javier and his grandparents were in Cagayan de Oro City for a two week holiday but were also busy helping the poor football playing kids of this city.
They personally brought with them football shoes and distributed them to public school elementary boys.
Last Sunday, Javier was guest during the VoxPop Fiesta Cup Invitational Football tournament held at the Westridge Sports Park where he demonstrated the different football skills during the skills contests sponsored by YMCA Cagayan de Oro.
YMCA executives Gonzalo Gesta, Tony Velez and Sol Ucab enjoyed the contests which was participated by top players from the schools joining the tournament.
Six elementary schools competed in the elementary division. They were Rosevale School team A, Rosevale School Team B, Iligan Medical Center College, West City Central School, Pagatpat Elementary School and Bulua Elementary School.
Javier gave the winners football shoes he brought from the USA.
Eight teams joined the Secondary Division of the VoxPop Fiesta Cup.
They were Rosevale Teams A and B, Corpus Christi High School, Bulua National High School, Puerto National High School, Little Me Academy, Bukidnon National High School of Malaybalay.
Javier played a 15 minute friendly match with the top players of the tournament where he scored five goals.
He showed his skills and his potential. He is very comfortable with the football and is very fast. No reason why he has attracted attention from the different clubs in Europe.
His exposure with Futsal was very obvious as he is really very quick with the ball and very fleet footed.
Javier grew up in San Francisco with his father, Rodrigo, mom Marisue and younger sister just a few blocks away from his grandparents.
His dad Rodrigo was a former El Salvadorean national youth footballer while grand dad Salvador is a legend in El Salvador. He once played against Pele in the World Cup and is now the president of the El Salvadorean FA.
Javier and his grandparents went back to the US yesterday but promised to come back and continue supporting the poor football playing children of Cagayan de Oro.
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