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View all search resultsNew year, new coach, new hope
Herdman is known for his belief in strong collective spirit and "mental toughness", which demands players maximize their physical potential.
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Toronto FC head coach John Herdman watches play against the Columbus Crew in the first half on Sept. 18, 2024, at BMO Field. The Englishman has accepted an offer to coach the Indonesian men’s soccer team. (Reuters/Dan Hamilton)
T
he arrival of John Herdman without fanfare as the new head coach of Indonesia's national men's soccer team just after the New Year has been met with optimism, given his convincing track record and his own motivation in accepting the job from the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI).
The stakes could not be higher for the Englishman, who will manage the team of a major nation with a large pool of talent that has yet to make it to the World Cup. Indonesia moved one step closer to realizing its long-time dream before Asian giants Saudi Arabia and Iraq brought it back to earth last October.
PSSI dismissed two foreign coaches, Shin Tae-yong and Patrick Kluivert, in the process of the country’s unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the World Cup for the first time. Herdman surely knows the risk of working with an unforgiving national soccer body, which has hired him until 2028 with a possible contract extension of two more years.
Unlike Shin and Kluivert, who played for the South Korean and Dutch World Cup teams respectively, Herdman has no international caps as a player. However, history recognizes him as the only coach on the planet to have guided both a national women’s and men’s team to the world’s most prestigious competition. He took charge of the Canadian women's team to the World Cup quarterfinals in 2015 and led the country’s men’s side to the 2022 World Cup, ending a 36-year wait. Without him, Canada qualifies for this year’s World Cup as one of the three hosts, alongside the United States and Mexico.
Now he takes the helm of the Indonesian team with the same intention of forming a squad that can claim a spot in the four-yearly tournament featuring soccer’s crème de la crème. "It's about finding the right project, one that resonates with the passion and intensity of the supporters and fans," Herdman told The Canadian Press when confirming his appointment as the Indonesian national team’s coach on Jan. 3.
Setting foot on Indonesian soil on Saturday, he was introduced to the public on Tuesday. PSSI had originally scheduled the event for Monday but delayed it, noting that the new coach was feeling under the weather and unable to attend the introductory gathering with the press.
In building his team, Herdman will not start from scratch. He inherits a roster combining local and naturalized players, much like the Canadian side under his tutelage. With many Indonesian footballers nurturing careers in Europe, Herdman is upbeat that his new team can compete at a higher level in the next two years.
