Shin Tae-yong Calls 27 Players To Prepare For 2024 U-23 Asian Cup Qualification, Aboard Players Will Join

The coach of the Indonesian national team, Shin Tae-yong. (Photo: Doc. PSSI)

JAKARTA - The U-23 Indonesian national team coach, Shin Tae-yong will call 27 players to prepare for the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup Qualification. The plan is for several names of abroad players or players playing abroad, which are included.

The five aboard players who will be called include Pratama Arhan (Tokyo Verdy), Marselino Ferdinand (KMSK Deinze), Ivar Jenner (Jong Utrecht), and Rafael Struick (ADO Den Hague).

After leaving as runner-up in the AFF U-23 Cup, the focus of the Garuda Muda Squad will immediately change. This is because this team will carry out another important agenda, namely the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup Qualification which will take place on September 6-12.

Previously, the U-23 national team would first undergo a training camp (TC) in Solo on September 4. A total of 27 names will be called to take part in the TC.

"Asian Qualification (U-23), (TC starting) on 4 (September), the 27 players we will call and we will call all the existing players," said Sumardji as Chairman of the National Team Agency (BTN).

"We have to use this momentum well because we want to qualify in the Asian Cup Qualification which will be held on 9th, and 12th (September 2023) in Solo," he continued.

Not only handling the U-23 national team to appear in the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers, Shin Tae-yong also prepared a senior national team that will face Turkmenistan in a FIFA Matchday on September 8, 2023 at Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium, Surabaya.

With the close agenda, Sumardji said, the coach will try to implement time efficiency. One of them is by setting a schedule for summoning players simultaneously, but there will be a standard separation of age groups.

"So we also call the senior (national team) along with the 4th, the senior in Surabaya, the U-23 in Solo, the senior we call 24 players," explained Sumardji.

"24 players (to fight Turkmenistan) are players, indeed they are 23 and over, meaning that they are prepared for seniors, not U-23," he continued.

For the U-23 Asian Cup qualifying agenda, the U-23 national team is in Group K, where the inaugural match will be held on September 9 against Turkmenistan U-23. Three days later the match was again held at Manahan Stadium, Solo to fight Taiwan U-23.