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‘Rusun’ children get a chance to bend it like Silva
Play ball: Andy Smith (center), the technical director of coaching for City Football School, gives directions to children during soccer training at the Jakarta Rusun Festival, which was held on Pertamina Field in Simprug, South Jakarta, on Saturday
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span class="inline inline-center">Play ball: Andy Smith (center), the technical director of coaching for City Football School, gives directions to children during soccer training at the Jakarta Rusun Festival, which was held on Pertamina Field in Simprug, South Jakarta, on Saturday.(JP/Ibrahim Irsyad)
The grey sky met the green grass of the soccer field and the light blue jerseys of dozens of boys ready to start a soccer coaching clinic at Pertamina Simprug field in South Jakarta on Saturday afternoon.
“Hall Of Fame” by The Script was playing through the loudspeakers as the children were divided into teams to join three coaches from Manchester City Football Club. It was already raining when they started practice, but that did not bother them.
As children born and raised in Jakarta’s slum areas, they never dreamed they would join a coaching clinic run by a Premier League club like Manchester City.
“We never imagined this before. We play soccer only as a hobby and never thought it could go this far,” Maulana Ichsan Arfi told The Jakarta Post before the coaching session began.
Arfi is the captain of the Daan Mogot rusun (low-cost apartment) soccer club, among the seasoned participants of the annual soccer competition, called the Jakarta Rusun Festival (JRF), held by the Cahaya Kasih Tunas Bangsa Foundation, for children who live in rusun in Jakarta.
In fact, the Daan Mogot team from West Jakarta has won the competition two years in a row, allowing them to fly to Spain to visit the stadiums of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
The coaching clinic, which was held before the commencement of the competition this year, is sponsored by QNET, a Hong Kong-based direct selling company and an official partner of Manchester City.
“I am so excited. We were sent to Spain two times in a row for the last two years and [on Saturday] we will be coached by Manchester City. This will be valuable [experience],” said Amos Yoshua Felle, a member of the Daan Mogot club.
Like his two friends, Arfi and Amos, Agus Putra Mandiri hoped to gain more knowledge and experience and hoped to join Jakarta soccer club Persija in the future.
QNET chose to sponsor the coaching clinic as it shared a similar vision with the foundation, to empower the marginalized in society, especially children.
“Not all of these kids are going to be professional soccer players in the future. However, all the lessons and experiences they gain through playing soccer, including at today’s coaching clinic, will help them be the best they can be,” QNET chief executive officer Trevor Kuna said on Saturday.
Andy Smith, the technical director of coaching from the City Football Schools, said it was a privilege to be part of the coaching clinic program, which was the first opportunity for City Football Schools to bring its programs to Indonesia.
“Our sessions will focus on specific areas of our City Play curriculum looking at themes such as Play For Fun, Play To Learn and Play To Progress. Using the examples of current City players such as Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, we challenge players to master the ball, play with style and dominate the game,” Smith explained.
The British coach, who came with colleagues Pete Tickle and Lewis Childs, taught 96 children aged 12 to 16 at the Simprug field.
The children were members of 22 soccer teams that will compete in the JRF in October this year.
About 4,000 children are among the residents of 16,000 families living in 23 low cost apartments across the capital.
Most of them formerly lived in slum areas where clean water access was difficult and the environment was unhealthy. Some of the kids did not go to school because of social and economic issues.
Arfi used to live in Kapuk, Agus in Tambora and Amos in Kemanggisan in West Jakarta before they were evicted in December 2014 and relocated to Daan Mogot.
“People stigmatize rusun residents by calling it a marginalized society and they might think that way as well. So, to lift up their self-confidence, former Jakarta governor Basuki ‘Ahok’ Tjahaja Purnama asked our foundation to hold the Jakarta Football Festival Rusun Cup [JFFRC] in 2015,” said Cahaya Kasih Tunas Bangsa Foundation head David Wiranata.
In 2016, JFFRC became JRF to accommodate girls in the rusun by adding festival categories including dancing and drawing.
Arfi and his friends won for the second time in 2016 and were sent to Spain again to spend one week training with Valencia.
“[Back home] we don’t have any field so we play on the street,” Daan Mogot soccer club manager Awaludin said, adding that the 18 club members trained with two coaches on Wednesday and Friday nights and Saturday morning every week. (dra)
