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January 20, 2025 | 12:17 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian national team is in the spotlight after the appointment of Patrick Kluivert as the new head coach to replace Shin Tae-yong. The British media, The Guardian, highlighted this with the Garuda squad filled with Dutch diaspora.
"The replacement of a successful coach from South Korea with a famous former Dutch striker is a gamble that could backfire," said The Guardian in the opening of its article, Tuesday, January 14, 2025.
The British media directed the narrative that the Indonesian national team is dominated by Dutch-born players as in football during the Dutch East Indies colonial era. They said, of the eleven players who were able to beat Saudi Arabia 2-0 in the 2026 World Cup qualifying match, eight players were born in the Netherlands.
"There are many more to come to be naturalized. PSSI, the Indonesian football federation, has begun the process of naturalizing European players who are eligible to represent the Garuda squad with parents or grandparents, a legacy of the Dutch colonial era that ended in 1945," he said.
Although the arrival of diaspora players instantly improved the quality of the Indonesian national team, The Guardian said it caused problems for the former coach who is familiarly called STY. Although the British media also highlighted the sweet fruit of Shin Tae-yong who was able to place the Garuda squad in third place in the Group C standings.
"Shin's coaching history (including winning the 2010 Asian Champions League with Seongnam and leading South Korea at the 2018 World Cup) is superior to his replacement, considering that he (Kluivert) is not a Dutch football legend," he said.
The Guardian highlighted widespread public concerns about Kluivert's coaching experience which was not comparable to his experience as a player. PSSI itself believes that the presence of the former Ajax and Barcelona striker will be able to improve the performance of the Garuda squad.
"(Kluivert) will help persuade great players from the Netherlands to give up their dreams of wearing orange in favor of wearing the red and white uniform," he said.
Patrick Kluivert expressed his target in his first two matches in the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Australia and Bahrain in March. His target is for Indonesia to pocket four points from the two matches. The details are one point away against Australia and three points at home against Bahrain.
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