“I was more of a fan of the national team at that time. But I really admire Ricky Yacobi, who was at that time playing as a striker for Arseto Solo. He had stolen the attention from so many soccer fans outside his own club,” Ignatius Indro, the head of the Indonesian National Team Fans Association, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

“He was like Marco Van Basten, who had always been able to create possibilities out of difficult moments.”

Indro said Ricky’s death should be treated as a wakeup call for all Indonesian soccer stakeholders that the country was in dire need of finding players who could fit Ricky’s shoes as a professional.

“We now have some good [players] like Bagas Kaffa and Egy Maulana, among others, but they need more hours and matches to prove that they could be like Ricky or even fly higher than him,” he said.

Bagas used to play for the U-19 national team and has just finished training in Europe. He is now heading back to Barito Putra, his previous club. He and his twin brother, Bagus Kahfi, have been lauded as one of Indonesia’s future star players for their distinguished talents. Bagus also played with the U-19 national team, but unlike Bagas, he is training with Garuda Select in Italy and is considering playing with Utrecht FC in the Netherlands.

Egy Maulana Vikri, who is now joining Lechia Gdanks of Poland, is still waiting to prove himself capable both to the club and sport fans.

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