Dan Stephen Castillo Palami (born June 9, 1970) is the general 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. Early life and education Dan Palami was born in Tacloban on June 9, 1970. He 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. Political career In 2007, Palami ran for mayor of Tacloban City against Alfred Romualdez, son of outgoing mayor Alfredo 'Bejo' Romualdez. He lost the election by a more than 22,000 vote margin. Managing career Football Philippines U19 In November 2009, Palami was offered to handle the Philippine U19 national football team. Palami accepted the offer to manage 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. Philippines national senior team 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, was months away, since he had more little time to prepare the U-19 team at the AFC U-19 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. In March 2018, Palami secured qualification for the Philippines in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup when the national team won, 2–1, over Tajikistan. Philippines national youth teams In late 2017, it was reported that Palami would be involved in managing the Philippine youth teams in 2018. Palami described the setup of the national youth team to the setup of the senior national team in 2010 when there was a lack of developmental plan and transparency on the selection of players. He notes