The newest batch under the Garuda Select program, comprising 24 players and four coaches, is gearing up to spend an 18-month training program in England starting Jan. 15 thanks to the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) in collaboration with SuperSoccer TV.

The Garuda Select Team will be helmed by former England national team player Des Walker and the technical director Dennis Wise, who played for Chelsea during his soccer career.

Walker and Wise were directly involved in selecting all 24 players, who are mostly players from the U-16 national team. Both Englishmen also scouted a local talent from the eastern part of the country, Braif Fatari, who does not play for any soccer club and has no experience in competing in the local league.

Wise said the players would be monitored and their performance would be evaluated by the coaching team. The coaching team has design a comprehensive training program that does not only include practice in the field, but also a learning program for the players so they can still pursue their education.

PSSI secretary-general Ratu “Tisha” Destria emphasized that the Garuda Select program was a fast track to catch up with other countries. Tisha shrugged off the lingering doubts of some parties who questioned the significance of this program in lifting the country’s soccer in terms of both skills and integrity.

“First, we need to learn from history that the previous program wasn’t necessarily all good or all bad [for Indonesian soccer]. This program [Garuda Select] is part of the Elite Pro Academy, which is the solution the association provides to catch up with other countries,” she told journalists, referring to the youth development program, which was launched by the PSSI in 2018.

“In the past, the environment in our youth development had forced our great young talents to face amateur players, who were not at the same level as them, when they came back to Indonesia even after the players had the opportunity to play abroad, and that’s why PSSI established the Elite Pro Academy to prevent that,” she added.

The Elite Pro Academy was a youth development program in which 18 soccer clubs in the country’s top soccer league Liga 1 deployed their youth team to compete in a tournament in September last year. Persib Bandung U-16 soccer club won the first edition of the tournament.

The PSSI previously created programs similar to Garuda Select, such as Primavera and Baretti in 1992 and 1995, in which selected players were sent to learn in Italy, which was hailed as the country with the best soccer league at the time.

The Garuda Select program will run for the next 10 years. Besides deploying the players, four coaches, including Primavera program alumnus Bima Sakti, will also be sent to England to learn about the coaching system and technical matters.

The association plans to establish other levels of the Elite Pro Academy, as ideally there must be five grades in the youth development program, namely U-10, U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18.

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