By ADRIAN STEWART CO

Bacolodnon Norman Fegidero has been tasked to handle the Philippine Azkals national men’s football team for the upcoming Merdeka Cup scheduled next month in Malaysia.

According to Philippine Football Federation national team director Freddy Gonzalez, Fegidero is taking over the head coaching role on an interim basis following Tom Saintfiet’s sudden departure.

Philippine women’s football team head coach Mark Torcaso and his assistant coaches Andrew Durante, Sinisha Cohaezic and Garrath McPherson will serve as Fegidero’s assistants for the upcoming competition.

“Given the circumstances, we needed to act quickly. Norman was the assistant coach in the last four games and was the obvious choice to take charge in the interim,” Gonzales said.

“With some of our staff departing along with Tom, we needed to bring in additional support. Luckily for us, we have a great staff on the women’s side that was more than willing to answer the call,” he added.

“It’s unusual to see a crossover of staff from separate teams, but it’s a situation that required a novel solution. This temporary fix will give us more time to pin down a permanent head coach,” he further said.

Saintfiet surprisingly left the Azkals after just six months, as he received an offer to be the head coach of the Mali national men’s football team.

Fegidero, a former standout of West Negros University, was a former member of the national men’s football team from 1989 to 2001.

The Bacolod City-native previously coached the Azkals in 2008.

Recently, he handled the Azkals U-23 team and the Azkals Developmental Team./ASC, WDJ