Dan Palami | |
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Palami in 2016
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Born |
Dan Stephen Castillo Palami June 9, 1970 Tacloban, Philippines |
Nationality | Filipino |
Occupation | Sports team manager, sports team chairman, businessman |
Dan Stephen Castillo Palami is the manager of the Philippine men's national football team since 2009. He is credited for his contributions to the revival of football in the Philippines due to the national team's performance at the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup.
In 2014, he was appointed as the team manager of the UP Fighting Maroons men's basketball team that have played in the UAAP.
Dan Palami was born in Tacloban on June 9, 1970.
Dan Palami studied at the University of the Philippines and pursued a degree in accountancy. Palami became a Certified Public Accountant. He also studied law at the same university but stopped his studies during his fourth year to establish a railway company.
After he graduated and established his own company, Palami and members of his staff began to play at the back of the Quezon City Hall and later at the Sunken Garden at the University of the Philippines. This would lead to the founding of Laos F.C. which later had some success at local tournaments such as the Ang Liga.
In November 2009, Palami was offered to handle the Philippine U19 national football team. Palami accepted the offer to managed the team through the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship qualification. He quit after a poor finish at the tournament only gaining a point against Guam.
The Philippine Football Federation hired Dan Palami to be the manager of the Philippine national football team in December 2009.The Philippine Football Federation allowed Palami autonomy over the national football team. Palami was hesitant in accepting the job at first but accepted the offer of the PFF after learning that the next major tournament, the 2010 AFF Championship is months away since he had more little time to prepare the U-19 team at the AFC U10 Championship qualifiers. Palami is in charge of recruiting players and hiring the coach of the team. During the earlier phase of his management he had to fund the team from his own personal funds as the team had difficulties gaining financial support from corporate sponsors. The team's kit sponsor at that time was Mizuno.