Gencar Naturalization But Ambyar Development, Are You Sure Achievements Can Be Pursued?

The Indonesian national team is currently filled with many naturalized players, who are recognized as short-term programs due to bad coaching and football competitions in Indonesia. (Between/Yusran Uccang)

JAKARTA The naturalization project of descendants who are believed to be able to boost the achievements of the Indonesian National Team always raises new questions. What will happen to the development of early childhood players?

The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) has recently been intensively naturalizing. The goal is to raise the achievements of the national team in the international arena.

Cristian Gonzales became the first naturalized player in Indonesia, before finally being followed by other foreign players to join a similar program in order to be in the Red and White uniform.

However, the naturalization project was increasingly being carried out in the era of Shin Tae-yong's coaching. He said the coach himself asked PSSI to regulate the descendants because local players were considered not to meet the standards.

In the STY era, there were 11 players who were naturalized. They are Marc Klok, Jordi Amat, Sandy Walsh, Shayne Pattynama, Ivar Jenner, Rafael Struick, Justin Hubner, Jay Idzes, Thom Haye, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, and Ragnar Oratmangoen. However, it should be noted, Marc Klok is not included in the STY recommendation project because it has been in charge of the naturalization process since 2019.

This step then gives rise to pros and cons, even though everyone knows the ultimate goal is to boost the achievements of the national team. The public demands a long-term solution from PSSI so that the achievements of the national team can also be felt consistently. The development of early childhood players who should be the foundation, seems to be the current stepdaughter.

STY's presence in the national team coach chair is considered quite successful in boosting the national team's achievements, at least that's how it is felt so far. Indonesia managed to penetrate the last 16 of the Asian Cup for the first time in history in January 2024. At the latest FIFA ranking, the Garuda squad also successfully ranked 134th in the world. Quoting Kompas, this is the highest achievement of the national team since 2011, when Merah Putih was ranked 105th in the last year.

Along with the achievements of the national team which slowly increased, the interest of supporters in Justin Hubner and his friends also jumped.

But, how long will Indonesia rely on naturalization programs? The former Indonesian national team player who is now part of the management of the Garuda squad, Nova Arianto, admits that naturalization is a short-term solution. Meanwhile, in the long term, youth coaching must be carried out as well as possible.

"From the short term, if you want to achieve, it's a naturalization player problem, I think it's a short term but in the long term we have to prepare our young players," Nova said as quoted from the YouTube channel of the Most National Team.

"Preparing from mentally, physically, skills, for what? So that later on, ready in the long term, ready to be the backbone of the National Team, and that must be, yes, we must prepare together from now on, not just techniques, but how can the mentality be even more prepared," added the former main defender of Persib Bandung.

Currently, PSSI is known to have run competitions at an early age, such as the U-16 EPA, U-18 and U-20. In addition, several PSSI Asprovs have also rolled out the U-17 Soeratin Cup. Not to mention the early-age competition run by the private sector such as the Kompas League and the Top Score League.

Imran Nahumarury, a former player who is now coaching the Liga 2 Malut United club, said that early childhood is a long-term program for national team achievements. But this road is also considered not optimal because it has a number of challenges.

Imran assessed that youth coaching did not go as expected to contribute to the national team because it was influenced by several things, ranging from inadequate infrastructure to the environment.

"Youth competition actually provides opportunities for young players from an early age, but this is also determined by many things, such as the environment, coaching education, infrastructure such as the field and so on," Imran told VOI.

"The curvature is one of the reasons why Indonesia seems to have difficulty finding the seeds of quality players, even though there are many early childhood coachings," explained Imran.

Di kita masih banyak pemain yang merasa cepat puas, jadi misal sudah menjadi juara level usia suami, si pemain merasa sudah hebat, cepat puas. Champion membuat mereka jemawa, padahal juara di usia dari bukan sebuah prestasi tapi justru perjalanan, sambung pria yang berhasil membawa Malut United promosi ke Liga 1 ini.

The naturalization of players which has an impact on the development of young players has also attracted the attention of football observer Tommy Welly. In the Discussion of Drinking in the Central Jakarta area, Thursday, December 21, 2023, the man who is familiarly called Towel said that naturalization is a beacon but forgetting the foundation or coaching will not improve long-term achievements.

He said, with the incessant naturalization of mixed-blooded players, it could eliminate the real function of competition in producing players.

"The national team is part of this process (the appearance of players from gassroots and local competitions). Just remember again, PSSI can naturalize 15 to 18 players at once. Exco PSSI can decide on 11 naturalized players starting all," said Tommy.

"However, at the same time questions will come to PSSI and football lovers, where is the position of our competition? What are the contributions (competition and grassroots)?" he added.

Tommy said PSSI must be responsible for Indonesian football as a whole, including developing potential competitions in the country. Without the need to debate naturalization, according to Tommy, forgetting the foundation will be useless.

"Then, the question will come where is the position of our competition? If naturalization is only used as a beacon but the foundation is forgotten, then it will not be anything," he said.