Visit To Japan, U20 National Team Meets Indonesian Diaspora

JAKARTA - The U20 National Team (Timnas) met and greeted the Indonesian diaspora in Japan during its visit to the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia (KBRI) in Tokyo, Saturday 9 November 2024.

The Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Japan Heri Akhmadi welcomed the U20 National Team Coach Indra Sjafri, the 20th National Team Captain Dony Tri Pamungkas, Jens Raven, Kadek Arel, Ikram Algifari and other players.

"This time it's really very special with the U20 coach and national team to come fully and I think it brings a new spirit about future plans. Hopefully this visit to Japan brings an experience that is provision for success in the future. We are also praying for this national team to be successful at the next level," said Ambassador Heri.

According to him, sport is an effective bridge of inter-national diplomacy because it can relax tensions and facilitate relations between countries, for example, table tennis diplomacy or ping-pong between the United States and China in 1971.

The friendly match led to US President Richard Nixon's visit to China a year later and became the forerunner of diplomatic relations in the superpower in 1979 and cut off the Bamboo Curtain country from the outside world.

"Football diplomacy is also very important because we know that our football players are also not divided from the origin of the player nation, clubs," said the ambassador.

"Incidentally, this morning I still had time to see the news that two sports players from Denmark were confirmed to be Indonesian citizens. But, that's something that I think is definitely the role of our sportsmen in promoting Indonesia abroad is very important."

The red and white squad is currently conducting a three-week training camp in Japan, from 6-23 November 2024, in preparation for the U20 Asian Cup round in China on 6-23 February 2025.

Coach Indra Sjafri hopes that the training camp in Japan can help achieve a number of targets for his team, one of which is qualifying for the U20 World Cup.

"This is a series of teams leading to the Asian Cup and later from the Asian Cup, the top four are determined to go to the World Cup," said Indra.

"First of course we are grateful that all of our plans here are the arrival of the Ambassador himself, hopefully today our activities will run smoothly. Hopefully, what is the target of the trial here can run well," he said.

U20 National Team Captain Dony Tri Pamungkas said he was optimistic that he would work hard to give the best results.

"My optimism will work hard, we believe what is the target to qualify for the World Cup," he said.

Indonesian citizens in Japan Lorenca said they were happy to meet Jens Raven and friends.

"It's definitely a pleasure to have this meeting to bring supporters closer to the players, so they can give each other," he said.

He hopes that the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo will hold many similar activities because many sports events, especially football in Japan and Indonesian citizens, are very enthusiastic about these activities.

In the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup, the U-20 Indonesian national team in pot 3, entered Group C. The Red-White Team will compete with Uzbekistan, Iran, and Yemen to qualify for the next phase.