Juan Miguel "Johnny" del Gallego Romualdez was a former Philippine international footballer and former President of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF).

Early life and education

Johnny Romualdez was born to a family of doctors and was the second eldest child among his six other siblings. His father was Alberto Zialcita Romualdez (1913-1986), former Secretary General of the

World Medical Association The World Medical Association (WMA) is an international and independent confederation of free professional medical associations representing physicians worldwide. WMA was formally established on September 17, 1947 and has grown to 115 national me ...

(1965-1973) and whose brother was

Daniel Z. Romualdez Daniel Zialcita Romualdez (September 11, 1907 – March 22, 1965) was a Philippines, Filipino politician who served as Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 1957 to ...

, the 10th

Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines The speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines (), more popularly known as the House speaker, is the presiding officer and the highest-ranking official of the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, as well as t ...

(1958-1962). His mother was Covadonga Ubante del Gallego (1915-2004), a former chairman of the Pathology Department of the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (UST; ), officially the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines or colloquially as ''Ustê'' (), is a Private university, private Catholic school, Catholic researc ...

Hospital. His siblings include former

Secretary of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate Minister of Mental Health, ...

Alberto Romualdez Alberto del Gallego Romualdez Jr. (September 14, 1940 – October 14, 2013) was a Filipino physician who served as the Secretary of Health from 1998 to 2001 in the Cabinet of President Joseph Estrada. From 1981 to 1984, he was the director of the ...

and Ambassador

Jose Manuel Romualdez Jose Manuel "Babe" del Gallego Romualdez (born November 8, 1947) is a Filipino journalist, publisher and business executive who is the current Ambassador of the Philippines to the United States. He previously served as Special Envoy of Presid ...

. Romualdez attended Ateneo where he attained his

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

. He started playing football at age 11. He studied at the institution from Grade 1. He had to repeat one whole school year of 2nd year high school education after he failed to meet his requirements. During his college years he received a scholarship from the YCO Athletic Club.

Football career

Romualdez played football for the

Ateneo Blue Eagles The Ateneo Blue Eagles are the collegiate varsity teams of the Ateneo de Manila University that play in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), the premiere collegiate league in the Philippines. The Ateneo collegiate ...

where he served as co-captain of the high school varsity team (1957–1958) and captain of the college varsity team (1961-1962). He was inducted into the Ateneo Hall of Fame in 1997. He joined the national team in 1958 and was part of the squad that participated at the

1962 Asian Games The 1962 Asian Games () also known as the 4th Asian Games, IV Asiad, and Jakarta 1962, were the fourth edition of pan-Asian multi-sport event sanctioned by the Asian Games Federation (AGF). The games were held from 24 August to 4 September 1962, ...

. His last appearance was in 1967 at the 1968 Olympics qualifiers when he served as captain of the national team. The team suffered its worst defeat in a 0–15 match against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. He and a group of friends established the Blue Guards F.C. in the 1960s.

Post-retirement

Romualdez was appointed as manager of the U-20 national football team which was organized under the Kasibulan grassroot program in the 1970s. He also ran several businesses in the mid 1970s. Romualdez also worked at the Philippine Football Federation and served as Executive Vice President. He was elected President of the football association in 2004.

Personal life

His older brother,

Jr. (1940-2013), was regarded by many as the "Pioneer of Universal Health Care" and was the former Secretary of Health (1998-2001) of the

Department of Health (Philippines) The Department of Health (DOH; ) is the Executive Departments of the Philippines, executive department of the Philippine government responsible for ensuring access to basic public health services by all Filipinos through the provision of quality ...

and a fellow on Tumor Immunology at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

and Membrane Biophysics at the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. His grandfather, Miguel Lopez Romualdez (1882-1950) served as mayor of Manila (1924-1927) during the American colonial period and Assemblyman of

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has been ...

during the Commonwealth Era.

References

Living people Filipino men's footballers Philippines men's international footballers 1940s births

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John (given name), John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly ...

Ateneo de Manila University alumni Presidents of the Philippine Football Federation Men's association football players not categorized by position Filipino people of Spanish descent 20th-century Filipino sportsmen Year of birth missing (living people) {{Philippines-footy-bio-stub