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Soccer fans bond through championing 'underdog' teams
Indonesian soccer fans are well known for their passion for the sport, and while many of the most popular foreign teams have dozens of local fan clubs, a dedicated few stand out for supporting less-celebrated teams.
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'Il Toro' brothers: Cofounder Ferri Ahrial (center, rear) and other members of the Indonesian Torino fan club meet up with their Singapore-based counterparts during a 2017 gathering in Bandung, West Java. (Indotorino/Courtesy of Indotorino)
I
ndonesians take soccer very seriously. Nearly every top-tier European league team has a local community of loyal fans. But for some, a certain kind of joy comes with supporting less renowned teams.
Muhammad Zaky Raja is one such fan who takes pride in having supported Italy’s Genoa-based U.C. Sampdoria since he was a child, nurtured by a combination of the club’s history and his father's love for soccer.
"In 1994, my father watched them play live at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. And at that time, the Indonesian Soccer Association [PSSI] sent the youth team to train with Sampdoria,” the 36-year-old told The Jakarta Post on May 5. 2021, referring to the PSSI Primavera training program for junior players.
That Sampdoria has won neither a Serie A nor a European competition in three decades doesn’t bother Zaky, who cofounded Indosamp, a community of Indonesian Sampdoria fans.
The early members of Indosamp first met on a Yahoo! mailing list for international Sampdoria fans.
“Then, we met in South Jakarta in September 2009 [to form a fan club],” recalled Zaky, who is an expert staffer to a Regional Representatives Council (DPD) member.
In 2012, Indosamp received the formal recognition of Federazione dei Clubs Blucerchiati, which governs Sampdoria fan clubs around the world. Today, Indosamp has 100 members across the country.
