Many Clubs Approach, Primary Arhan Reveals The Reason He Finally Falls In Love With Tokyo Verdy

Pratama Arhan/PHOTO: Ulfa Gusti Utami-VOI

JAKARTA - Pratama Arhan was officially recruited by Tokyo Verdy from PSIS Semarang on a free transfer on February 16, 2022.

Before finally dropping his heart on the Japanese club's offer, Arhan admitted that a number of clubs had also submitted an offer to his agent, Dusan Bogdanovic.

"There were a lot of offers to my agent. But about the offer is the business of my agent. So, I focused on playing football,” said Pratama Arhan when met at the PSSI office during his release on Friday, March 4.

Despite admitting many offers from clubs that came, Arhan then made his choice to play in the Japanese League with Tokyo Verdy.

The 20-year-old defender said the reason for choosing Tokyo Verdy to compete in the J2 League. He saw the Japanese League is the best in Asia.

"Tokyo Verdy has offered from one year ago, previously many teams had submitted bids," said Arhan.

"I think the Japanese league is also the best league in Asia so I decided to choose here (Tokyo Verdy) and also the history of the team is good," said Arhan.

Regarding Arhan's choice based on the team's background, this is not an exaggeration. Because, Tokyo Verdy also has a good record in competition in Japanese football.

When they were still called Verdy Kawasaki, they became one of the 10 teams that participated in the inaugural season of the J League or the top soccer competition of the Japanese League.

In the inaugural season of the J League which was held in 1993, Verdy Kawasaki who now uses the name Tokyo Verdy managed to emerge as the champion.

The last time the club based at Ajinomoto Stadium competed in the J1 League was in the 2008 season.

That season, Tokyo Verdy finished 17th out of 18 participants and had to be relegated to the J2 League.