JAKARTA - Persija Jakarta U-20 managed to win the Elite Pro Academy (EPA) Super League season 2025/2026 after stopping Malut United FC in the final round of the competition for this age group.
Macan Muda is entitled to climb to the highest place after winning 1-0 in the final match which took place at the Garudayaksa Football Academy, Bekasi, on Sunday, May 17, 2026. The goal that determined the victory was scored by Theodore Evan Leeming four minutes before the normal first half.
Persija U-20 coach, Furqon Alkatiri, said that this victory was the fruit of the hard work of everyone in the team for about a year.
"The children's struggle is extraordinary. Almost a year we gathered, we fought together, and with the hard work of all the teams, Persija finally won the first. Thank God," he said in Bekasi after the match.
The result also avenged Persija Jakarta's defeat in the Elite Pro Academy Super League U-18. In that category, they failed to climb to the highest podium after losing on penalties against Malut United U-18.
On the other hand, the defeat against Persija Jakarta at the EPA Super League U-20 level means that Malut United FC failed to win the title after their U-18 team managed to hold Persija without a goal in normal time and then won narrowly 3-2 in the toss-toss.
Furqon admitted that he was very happy because in addition to the championship title in the U-20 category, Persija Jakarta also managed to win the best academy award for all levels of competition.
"Alhamdulillah with the several achievements that Persija has achieved this year, hopefully it will be a stimulus for the academy director and technical director to create many players from Persija who will become the backbone of the national team," he said.
Persija U-20 is the leader of Group A with 83 points, the result of 32 matches with 27 wins, two draws, and three losses. In that phase, they were able to score 110 goals and only conceded 16 goals, alias a surplus of 94 goals.
On the other hand, Malut United U-20 is the leader of Group B with 67 points, the result of 21 wins, four draws, and seven losses. During the group stage, Malut was able to score 59 goals and conceded 26 goals or a surplus of 33 goals.
I.League Competition Director Asep Saputra said that as organizers they were very satisfied with everything because it went smoothly. However, there are some notes that they will improve for the upcoming season.
"We are still aware that there are some records for the young age level, indeed records in terms of disciplinary violations are still quite high. I think this is still our big homework," he said.
In addition to the U-18 and U-20 levels, the EPA Super League has also completed the U-16 summit on the same day. In this category, Persik Kediri emerged as champions after defeating Persis Solo with a score of 5-3 in the penalty shootout after they drew 1-1 in normal time.
Not only the championship trophy, I.League as the competition operator also provides individual and team Fair Play awards for all categories after the series of matches are completed.
From the EPA Super League U-16, the best player award was won by Haikal Kamil (Persik Kediri), the best coach was given to Imam Rohmawan (Persis Solo), the best goalkeeper was awarded to Sendy Juliansyah (Dewa United Banten FC), the top scorer on behalf of Ichiro Akbar (Bhayangkara Presisi Lampung FC), and Fair Play was won by Persija Jakarta.
Then in the U-18 category, the best player was obtained by Kaindra Nabil (Persib Bandung), the best coach was Ferdiansyah (Persija Jakarta), the best goalkeeper was given to Dhanet Andika (Persis Solo), the top scorer was Hadza Mahendra (Borneo FC Samarinda), and Fair Play was given to Persija Jakarta.
Meanwhile, at the U-20 level, the best player was obtained by Fahran Darwan (Malut United FC), the best coach was achieved by Furqon (Persija Jakarta), the best goalkeeper was Er Deva Aulia (Persis Solo), the top scorer was Ahmad Mujadid (Persija Jakarta), and Fair Play was obtained by Semen Padang FC.
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