By the way ... : Welcome to the charm and spell of ‘Bachdimism’...

My friend surprised me when I saw a picture of national team striker Irfan Haarys Bachdim on her BlackBerry profile. I never thought that she would catch the “Bachdimism” fever, like so many others, because I had never heard her talk about soccer before.

“I like the way he plays, and also, perhaps, because he’s good looking,” she said when I asked her why she put Irfan’s face on her gadget.

“I think our national team has shown improvement. They have learned to attract more supporters by showing strong and entertaining performances,” she added.

Irfan — a half-Indonesian, half-Dutch striker who used to live in the Netherlands and now plays for Persema Malang — has become a trending topic on Twitter after he helped the Indonesian national team crush Malaysia 5-1, and then Laos 6-0, with the assistance of naturalized teammate Christian Gonzalez of Uruguay.

Indonesia’s national team surprised soccer enthusiasts with extraordinary performances in the first two matches at the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup. Just two goals at the tournament were enough to catapult Irfan into stardom.

“Admit it. Irfan is the new magnet of our soccer team,” my friend continued. “He is a perfect combination of skills and looks.”

Got it.

Another (female) friend, who knew nothing about soccer, rushed to Bung Karno Stadium to watch Indonesia face Thailand.

“Irfan was the magnet that dragged me here,” she said. “Indonesia’s national team has performed great in the past two matches. So I decided to go [to the stadium], which was a new experience for me.”

I asked her if she’s already fallen under the “Bachdimism” spell.

“Sort of,” she replied with a laugh. “I like having Irfan on our team. He has become an icon.”

Another colleague, however, was shocked when he discovered on his Twitter account that his wife was also following Irfan.

“OMG! I just found out that my wife follows Irfan Bachdim on Twitter!” he said.

Just like teenage music industry heartthrob Justin Bieber, Irfan’s good looks and athletic abilities have also attracted considerable attention. His followers on Twitter have multiplied from “only” about 7,000 before the AFF Cup kick off to more than 177,000 — in just one week!

Irfan’s number of followers is even higher than Bambang Pamungkas’ 87,000, although Irfan still calls Bambang — whose two penalty kicks against Thailand brought Indonesia to the top of Group A — “a hero and a legend”.

Irfan and Gonzalez, of course, contributed different colors to the national team’s performance. Other players, such as Oktovianus Maniani, Firman Utina and Arif Suyono, also contributed substantially to Indonesia’s victories.

Despite the players’ success on the pitch, we should not forget the role of coach Alfred Riedl of Austria, who previously coached teams representing Vietnam and Laos.

Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) chairman Nurdin Halid — who had been under pressure to resign due to the national team’s previous poor performances — can now easily claim that his management has brought success to the national team.

But without solid teamwork among players and good preparation by the coaches, it would have been impossible to see the national team score a perfect nine during the group’s round-robin matches.

Now that the players have turned themselves into new idols, the public is exposed to seeing their faces on TV screens and reading their praises in the newspapers.

Ready or not, Irfan and friends have to face being “worshipped” by their fans.

Coach Riedl understands the burden of overexposure, and therefore asked the media not to treat his squad as a “circus”.

We would love to see our national team members lift the trophy for the first time ever. And of course, as the 12th player, we will support them until the final whistle.

– Primastuti Handayani