Schrock and Marañon among PFL individual award winners

UNITED CITY FOOTBALL CLUB’S Stephan Schrock was awarded the Golden Ball by the Philippines Football League after helping his team to the 2020 PFL title.
— UNITED CITY FOOTBALL CLUB

UNITED City Football Club was officially crowned as champion of the 2020 Philippines Football League (PFL) season on Monday and along with it the team saw some of its stalwarts bag top individual awards.

Skipper Stephan Schrock was awarded the Golden Ball, or most valuable player award, while Spanish striker Bienvenido Marañon was the Golden Boot winner for having the most goals.

The Golden Glove winner, meanwhile, was United City goalkeeper Anthony Pinthus.

Mr. Schrock was a steady presence for United City in their five-game run in the recalibrated and coronavirus pandemic-hit PFL season where they went on to win four matches and with just one loss for 12 points.

When United City took over management of the team from Ceres-Negroc FC in the offseason, it made sure that one of its early re-signings was national team member Schrock, a move that proved too vital in its campaign as the Azkals veteran provided leadership and stability for the team.

Mr. Marañon, for his part, continued to pile up the goals in the local pro football league, tallying seven goals in their five games, boosted by two hat tricks against Mendiola FC 1991 (Oct. 31) and Stallion-Laguna FC (Nov. 6).

Teammates Mike Ott, Robert Lopez, and OJ Porteria followed him with six, five and four goals, respectively.

Jarvey Gayoso of the Azkals Development Team (ADT) had four goals as well.

Mr. Pinthus, on loan from ADT, made a good account of himself, establishing clean sheets in three of their matches.

The PFL season has one more game to play, that between Mendiola and Stallion on Thursday at the Philippine Football Federation National Training Center in Carmona, Cavite. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo