7’0” Kai Sotto believes he needs to work harder to crack 2023 World Cup team

IT’S still five years from now and Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes already crafted the future composition of the national team seeing action in the 2023 World Cup, which the Philippines will be hosting along with Indonesia and Japan.

Leading the squad are college standouts Kobe Paras, AJ Edu, Remy Martin, Robert Bolick, Thirdy Ravena, CJ Perez and Kai Sotto, the youngest selected at 15 years old.

Sotto is the seven-foot Batang Gilas standout currently playing for the Ateneo Blue Eaglets. He is the son of former PBA player Ervin Sotto.

For the young Sotto, being included in the 23-man roster is quite a surprise, but believes he will have to work hard to crack the lineup.

“That’s one of my goals. I need to work hard to get into that team. I’m not shocked, but I’m quite surprised to see my name on the pool,” Sotto said. “I felt no pressure at all. It’s five years from now.”

For now, Sotto is concentrating attending classes in Ateneo and even skipped Batang Gilas’ participation in the Marikina City Basketball League.

Other players who made it to the 23-man pool are University of the Philippines’ Paul Desiderio and Juan Gomez De Liano, Ateneo’s Matt Nieto and Isaac Go, National University’s Jayjay Alejandro and Joshua Sinclair, San Beda’s Kenmark Cariño and Javee Mocon, Far Eastern University’s Ken Tuffin and Arvin Tolentino.

Also part of the pool are Jeo Ambohot of Letran, Will Gozum of Mapua, Dwight Ramos from California State University and Wake Forest University’s Troy Rike.

But for former national team coach Yeng Guiao, a lot of things could happen in the future although he commended Mr. Reyes for coming up with a good foresight leading to the biggest basketball tournament in the world five years from now.

“That’s very far from the future. A lot of things could happen there. There are other new talents that can make or break into that list or there are people in that list that can still drop out. But what’s good is, we’re starting early. We have a foresight,” added Mr. Guiao. —