Azkals Development Team


The Azkals Development Team, commonly referred to as ADT and occasionally as ADT Manila, is a Filipino professional football club which will make its debut in the Philippines Football League's 2020 season.
The team is under the control of the Philippine Football Federation but will be managed as a professional club. Most of the club's players are members of the Philippines' youth national teams.

History

Following the participation of the Philippine U22 team in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games which was hosted in the Philippines, it was reported that there were plans to had the national youth team participate in the 2020 season of the Philippines Football League as a guest team. However, such plans were dropped and a full-fledged professional club under the name ADT F.C. will enter the league instead. The formation of the club is an initiative of the National Teams Committee of the Philippine Football Federation. The coaching staff of the Philippine senior national team will be involved with ADT with Scott Cooper as head coach.
The ADT was formed after it was observed that other countries participating in the games already had many players participating in professional leagues while Filipino players of the same age still involved in collegiate football. The development team is intended give "professional club environment" exposure to mainly youth players as well as select overage players from the senior national team such as individuals who recently recovered from an injury. According to Dan Palami, the ADT is a platform to develop "homegrown" players for the national team.
By January 2020, the club has began signing its first set of players. ADT played their first friendly match against Philippine Army F.C. on March 5, 2020 as part of Philippine Army's 123rd founding anniversary. ADT won 6–0. ADT's debut in the PFL was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic forced the postponement of the 2020 PFL season.

Players

First team squad

Head coaches