The former striker of Surakarta-based soccer club Persis Solo, the late Diego Antonio Mendieta Romero of Paraguay who died of a viral infection on Tuesday, was finally paid four months’ salary owed to him by the Persis Solo club from the 2012 Indonesian League competition.

Persis Solo manager Totok Supriyanto said on Wednesday that payment was made to facilitate sending Romero’s body back to his hometown in Paraguay.

“We are giving Diego priority and making full payment. We are still working on it for the other players and will pay them according to the agreement,” he said.

Totok was referring to an agreement made between the management and the players of Persis Solo in October, in which the players would get 50 percent of the total payment mentioned in their respective contracts with the club.

The soccer club’s general affairs manager, Paulus Haryoto, said that Persis Solo had been experiencing financial difficulties that resulted in a postponement in payments to its players, including Romero. The agreement in October was part of finding a solution to paying the arrears.

Romero passed away on Tuesday morning at Dr. Moewardi Hospital in Surakarta. His body was riddled with cytomegalovirus, including his eyes and brain.

Although the soccer competition was over, Romero decided to stay in a rented room in Kota Barat, Surakarta, while waiting for his salary to be paid by the soccer club. During his time with the club, he played 26 games in which he scored eight goals.

Romero’s total payment amounted to Rp 131 million (US$13,645), comprising the remaining contract value of Rp 47 million and four months salary of Rp 84 million.

The money was remitted to the bank account of Romero’s wife Valeria Ibanez in Paraguay.

Separately, worldwide soccer players’ representative organization FIFPro described the case as a
disgrace.

“FIFPro demands that the Indonesian soccer association make an end to the structural mismanagement of countless soccer clubs,” it said in a statement as quoted by Reuters.

“It is a disgrace for the whole of professional football in Indonesia,” added Frederique Winia, secretary-general of FIFPro’s Asia division.

“I know countless stories of players who are intentionally not paid by their clubs and have to wait for months for their salary. But I have never before heard a story where a seriously ill player has been left completely to his fate by a club.”

Both the club and the Indonesian national soccer association, according to Winia, should realize that they had seriously failed and that they had much to explain, particularly to the family and relatives of Romero. “The least the club can do is to pay the arrears in salary to his family,” Winia said.

Romero’s wife said she had been promised that she would receive the outstanding wages.

“He was practically abandoned, the only help he received was from three Paraguayan companions, nothing other than that,” she told Radio Cardinal in Asuncion.

Romero’s body was flown on Wednesday to Jakarta from Surakarta’s Adi Soemarmo Airport by his agent, Theodora Wulansari of PT Javindo. Theodora said the body would be put on a flight to Paraguay. “We’re trying for tonight,” she said.

She said the body would be transported on a cargo plane and she could not predict when it would arrive in Paraguay.

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