Daniel Bernan Reyes Gadia (born July 3, 1995) is a Filipino professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League (PFL) is a men's professional association football, football league in the Philippines. Sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and organized by Liga Futbol Inc., it is the country's Football in t ...

club

Cebu Cebu ( ; ), officially the Province of Cebu (; ), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 surrounding islands and islets. The coastal zone of Cebu is identified as a ...

and the Philippines national team.

Early life

Daniel Gadia was born to Annaliza and Bernanieto Gadia, and has two other siblings. Gadia was introduced to football in a futsal court in the Dapitan Sports Complex (Dapitan Football Club) in

Sampaloc, Manila Sampaloc is a district of Manila, Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of is ...

, where he was scouted by people from his eventual high school. He attended San Beda College, Rizal for his high school studies and entered the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

for his collegiate studies.

Collegiate career

Gadia played for the

at the

UAAP The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), established in 1938, is an athletic association of eight Metro Manila universities in the Philippines. The eight-member schools are Adamson University (AdU), Ateneo de Manila Univer ...

. For his efforts during

UAAP Season 78 UAAP Season 78 was the 2015–2016 athletic year of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). It opened on September 5, 2015, almost two months after the usual July opening of the league during previous seasons, due to the shi ...

, Gadia was named as the Most Valuable Player for the season. By October 2016, he was already on his last playing year with his collegiate team.

Club career

By 2014, Gadia already had experience playing for Pachanga Diliman at the UFL Cup. In May 2016, Gadia made his league debut at the United Football League for the

Loyola Meralco Sparks Loyola Football Club (LFC) is a Philippine professional football club. They play in the Philippines Football League (PFL), the highest tier of football in the Philippines. The club has won one UFL Cup and one PFF National Men's Club Championshi ...

in a match against

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

. The club then joined the

and changed their name to FC Meralco Manila. They played in the inaugural season in 2017 before the league was dissolved in January 2018, which left Gadia club-less. Gadia was picked up by Stallion Laguna, playing two years for the club, in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. Gadia was signed by expansion club

Cebu F.C. Cebu Football Club (also known as Dynamic Herb Cebu Football Club or DH Cebu for sponsorship reasons) is a Philippines professional association football, football club based in Cebu City, Cebu. The club currently plays in the Philippines Football ...

for the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, which would be his second Cebu-based club, after a brief stint with Global Cebu.

International career

Youth

In 2013, Gadia played for the Philippines U-19 team at the

2013 AFF U-19 Youth Championship The 2013 AFF U-19 Youth Championship was held from 9 to 22 September 2013, hosted by Indonesia. 11 members of the ASEAN Football Federation were divided into two groups. Australia, originally drawn in Group A, withdrew on 8 September 2013, citin ...

and the 2014 AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers. He is credited for the last minute goal against Laos in the AFC qualifiers, which prevented the national team from ending at the bottom of their group.

Senior

Gadia debuted for the

Philippine national football team The Philippines national football team () represents the Philippines in men's international football, governed by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and has been playing internationally since 1913. Prior to World War II, the Philippines ...

in a friendly match against Australian club

Perth Glory FC Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

in July 2016. However, his first official international cap was made about two months later on October 8, 2016 when he came in as substitute in the 82nd minute for

Phil Younghusband Philip James Younghusband Jr. (born 4 August 1987) is a former professional Association football, footballer who played mostly as a Forward (association football), striker and sometimes as a midfielder. Younghusband is best known for his perfo ...

in a friendly match against

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

. The match ended in a 1–3 defeat.

References

1995 births Living people Loyola F.C. players University Athletic Association of the Philippines men's footballers University of the Philippines alumni Philippines men's international footballers Filipino men's footballers Footballers from Manila Davao Aguilas F.C. players Men's association football midfielders Competitors at the 2017 SEA Games SEA Games competitors for the Philippines Cebu F.C. players Philippines Football League players 21st-century Filipino sportsmen {{Philippines-footy-bio-stub