PSSI Chairman Calls The U-17 World Cup A Lot Of Lessons, Especially Player Development

JAKARTA - Chairman of the All-Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) Erick Thohir revealed that the 2023 U-17 World Cup has taught many lessons for Indonesia, especially regarding the development of young players.

"The U-17 World Cup is an example of the importance of us being serious about early childhood coaching. To form a solid senior national team, it is necessary to support sustainable coaching. PSSI learned a lot from the U-17 World Cup, not only as the manager of events but also future thinking related to coaching," said Erick Thohir as quoted by Antara, Sunday.

The 2023 U-17 World Cup has ended by crowning the German national team U-17 2023 as champions after a dramatic win over France in the final match which took place at the Solo Manahan Stadium, Saturday.

Germany won in a penalty shootout over France with a score of 4-3, after a 2-2 draw match in normal time.

"Germany deserves to be champions. Since the preliminary round, their performance charts (Germany) have continued to climb. They eliminated the Spanish strong teams (in the quarter-finals) and Argentina (in the semifinals) before finally meeting France in the top match," said the former Inter Milan president.

Erick Thohir, who is also the Minister of SOEs, assessed that the final match took place at the climax, because France also showed the mentality of the champion even though he was two goals behind and made the winner of the match have to be decided through the penalty shootout round.

"A really thrilling match. The climax of the final. France shows a mentality of not knowing to give up. Even though they are left behind, they can catch up to force the match to be ended on penalties," said Erick, who is also the chairman of the U-17 World Cup LOC.

The final result at the U-17 World Cup tournament, which was first held in Indonesia, made Germany for the first time win the title since its participation in 1985.