These Are 5 Coach Candidates With The Potential To Train The Indonesian National Team

JAKARTA - The chair of the head coach of the Indonesian national team is getting warmer and more discussed after PSSI through the Chairman of the National Team, Sumardji, and the Secretary General, Yunus Nusi, conveyed the latest developments at a press conference held at the GBK Arena, Jakarta, Thursday (20/11).

At the press conference, as reported by Antara, Yunus asked the public to be patient regarding the new coach of the Garuda Team, and now PSSI already has five candidates to replace Patrick Kluivert who failed to bring the Garuda team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

Meanwhile, Sumardji revealed that the figure of the five prospective coaches for the Garuda team will be investigated further. Sumardji said he and PSSI Technical Director, Alexander Zwiers, would conduct a feasibility test on the five names of the candidates who had been pocketed, starting "next weeks" to get the most appropriate names.

There are two names that are widely discussed on social media, namely Jesus Casas and Ange Postecoglou. These two coaches are unemployed or without a contract with clubs or national teams.

However, apart from those names, there are also several interesting names that PSSI might consider because of their track record, and of course their experience in Asian football.

The name of former Garuda team coach Shin Tae-yong (STY) has been confirmed not to be included in the list. Although his name is "harm" in Indonesia, STY's door to return has been closed because PSSI General Chair Erick Thohir said the South Korean coach had become a past.

The following is a brief profile of five potential prospective coaches

Ange Postecoglou became widely known when he coached Tottenham Hotspur for two seasons. However, the name of this Australian coach has grown up in the Asian region after achieving success in various clubs and national teams.

Postecoglou has the most brilliant Curriculum vitae (CV) among the coaches on this list. How not, with Spurs he ended the trophy drought for the club over the years, lifting the Europa League trophy in 2024/2025.

Not only that, he managed to bring Celtic twice to lift the Scottish League trophy (2021/2022 and 2022/2023). Long before that, this Greek-blooded coach successfully conquered the Australian League four times (1997/1998, 1998/1999, 2010/2011, 2011/2012) with two different teams, Brisbane Rour and South Melbourne.

In the Asian region, he brought Yokohama F. Marinos to win the 2018/2019 Japanese League season. Four years earlier, he also successfully led Australia to win the 2015 Asian Cup.

Unfortunately, his classy CV was slightly tarnished after being sacked by Nottingham Forest, following eight unwinned matches in all competitions.

From Portuguese land, the name Paulo Bento has emerged who is currently unemployed. His experience in Asian football is coaching South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.

Together with South Korea, he brought the Warriors 35 wins, 13 draws, and nine defeats to the 57 matches he has played for four years.

Bento led South Korea to play in the Qatar 2022 World Cup. At that time, they qualified until the last 16, before being defeated by Brazil 1-4.

His journey with South Korea ended. Bento, who is now 56 years old, has continued his career to coach the United Arab Emirates (UAE) national team for two years.

The statistics with the UAE are 14 wins, five draws, and seven defeats. Unfortunately, his journey with the UAE did not continue after the coach, who has managed enough to coach Sporting Lisbon, only presented one win from his last five matches.

From this list, Jesus Casas is also a candidate for the coach who is widely mentioned. Casas is a Spaniard who is familiar with Asian football culture. He has coached the Iraqi national team for almost three years, from November 2022 to March 2025.

Together with the Mesopotamian Lions, Casas led the team in 33 matches with a record of 20 wins, four draws, and nine defeats. Under his control, Iraq scored 75 goals and conceded 51 goals. He presented one trophy, namely the 2022/2023 Gulf Cup.

Casas, who is now 51 years old, is an experienced European coach. He has been an assistant coach of the Spanish national team in three eras, namely Luis Enrique (31 matches), Roberto Moreno (10 matches), and Luis de la Fuente (1 match).

Prior to being with the Spanish national team, Casas was part of FC Barcelona's success under Luis Enrique won nine prestigious trophies, including the 2014/2015 trend winner. At that time, he played Match Analyst.

Born in Sante Fe, Argentina, but Spanish, Juan Antonio Pizzi is a poor coach across Asian football.

There are four teams he has trained in Asia, one of which is the Saudi national team he trained in the 2018 Duna Cup in Russia. At that time, the team he led died in the group stage, after winning only once against Egypt.

Pizzi's great success in coaching the national team was when he coached Chile. This team, reinforced by Alexis Sanchez, won the 2016 Copa America champion in the United States.

At that time, Chile beat Argentina in the final with a score of 4-2 in the penalty shootout. One of Argentina's failed penalty takers was Lionel Messi. Chile's victory and Argentina's failure made Messi decide to retire from the national team.

The name Felix Sanchez can be considered by PSSI. This Spaniard was Qatar's first coach at the World Cup, as they made their debut in this grand tournament when they hosted in 2022.

At the 2022 World Cup, Qatar failed completely. However, Sanchez's leadership in The Maroon team still presented success, after this team was brought to become the 2019 Asian Cup champion in the United Arab Emirates.

At that time, Qatar became the winner with a perfect record, which was seven wins from seven matches. They even always win with a clean sheet until the semifinals.

However, this clean sheet was dashed in the top match after losing one goal from Japan. However, the three goals Qatar scored made them come out as champions

Sanchez coached the Qatar national team for almost a decade, from 2013, by taking charge of the U-19 team, U-20, U-23, to the senior team. After leaving the national team, the 49-year-old coach coach coach coach coach coached Al Sadd, who he brought to the Qatar League champions for the 2024/2025 season.