COACH Marlon Maro doesn’t like Malditas as the moniker of the national women’s football team anymore and is keen on replacing it with one reflecting the qualities of a true Filipina.
“If you ask me, I don’t like to use this word Malditas, because it does not represent the beauty of being a Filipina,” Maro said during the PSA online forum yesterday.
Maro said he finds it uncomfortable using the word “maldita,” which means “cursed” or “damned” in Spanish, to describe his charges, who qualified for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in India in January 2022 after sweeping both of their Group F qualifying matches last month.
Although Maro claimed he was unaware how it stuck, the Malditas moniker has been associated with the Pinay booters for some time now, describing their feisty and competitive nature.
“But now that I am back with the women’s, I have told our players to stop using the word to refer to our team,” said the veteran tactician, whose last coaching assignment with the national women’s side was in the 2007 Thailand Southeast Asian Games.
“Our players are not Malditas because they are beautiful, good, intelligent and very disciplined. So, we are looking for a word that will reflect that. I am using this platform to announce that we are discouraging our players to use the word and are looking for a new moniker,” Maro stressed.
“We want a new one that will truly represent to the world the beauty of the Filipina,” he said.
