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View all search resultsNaturalized players struggle to prove worth to national team
If the strategy behind strengthening the national soccer team and improving its performance at international tournaments is through naturalizing foreign players, then the results of that strategy have yet to bear fruit
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f the strategy behind strengthening the national soccer team and improving its performance at international tournaments is through naturalizing foreign players, then the results of that strategy have yet to bear fruit.
In last year’s ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup, Indonesia ignominiously crashed out at the preliminary stage with Tonnie Cusell Lilipaly, Raphael Guilermo Maitimo and Jhonny van Beukering — all Dutch — in the lineup.
The national soccer authority jumped at the chance to naturalize players, most of whom had Indonesian decent, with a view to improving the team’s performance.
The other players on the list included Christian Gonzales of Uruguay and Diego Michiels, also Dutch.
“Naturalizing players was one of our ways to revive competitiveness among the players at the time. Coach Alfred Riedl [former national team coach], myself and Nugraha Besoes [former PSSI secretary-general] decided to recruit players of Indonesian descent abroad,” Iman Arif, former Indonesian National Team (BTN) technical division deputy, told The Jakarta Post.
He said they expected the naturalized players, who had been trained abroad, could help reinvigorate the Indonesian players.
They later started scouting talents from the Netherlands, a country with many soccer players of
Indonesian descent.
Out of a shortlist of 20 players, only five agreed to release their foreign citizenship and become Indonesians. They included Michiels, Lilipaly, Maitimo, van Beukering and Ruben Wuarbanaran.
“The requirements from coach Riedl at that time were that they had at least played in the second division and that they agreed to be Indonesians,” Iman said.
They later gave recommendations to the Youth and Sports Ministry, Law and Human Rights Ministry, State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the House of Representatives and the State Secretary before a presidential decree (on their Indonesian citizenship) was issued.
Unfortunately, the players who were expected to bring glory to Indonesian soccer failed to live up to expectations. Michiels found himself in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, with him allegedly being involved in an assault case.
These developments have led some people to now consider that naturalized players are no better than Indonesian players.
“I still think that naturalizing players is just a waste of energy and money, because none of them play better than Bambang Pamungkas or Andik Vermansyah for example,” soccer observer Anton Sanjoyo said.
He said that he was not against the policy as long as the players could prove their worth.
Some clubs rely on naturalized players but others opt to rest their hopes on local players.
Medan-based PSMS has said that it will not recruit naturalized players and will instead focus on finding and nurturing local talent, which the club views has similar, or even better qualities than naturalized players.
“We are trying to develop local potency, because if local players have similar qualities, why bother recruiting naturalized players?” said head coach of PSMS Medan Suimin Diharja said.
Tri Yudha Handoko, a midfielder with the club, said he thought that existing naturalized players had yet to prove that they lived up to their billing.
“There are so many Indonesians, we must have talent across the region. But unfortunately this talent has yet to be discovered,” Tri said.
Unlike PSMS, Persib Bandung seems to hope for a contribution from naturalized players, with Sergio van Dijk being included in its line up.
He became an Indonesian citizen on Monday.
The former Adelaide United striker said he turned elsewhere after finding himself stuck in the bench.
“So I thought it was about time I moved,” said the 30-year-old.
He is the son of Antonia Polnaya, who hailed from Ambon, Maluku and Roel Van Dijk of the Netherlands.
— Arya Dipa contributed to this report from Bandung
