Oliver Bias, Philippines’ National Team Player Officially Signed by Persija Jakarta

JAKARTA - Persija Jakarta officially signed a fifth foreign player, Oliver Saludares Bias, on Wednesday 19 July evening.

The 22-year-old Filipino national team player is on loan from the FK Pribram club with a one-year loan period.

The arrival of Bias was warmly welcomed by coach from Germany Thomas Doll. Even though he didn't know the player before, he later believed that Bias was the right person to raise the quality of the Kemayoran Tigers.

"Oliver (Bias) once played for the RB Leipzig youth team. So I had time to ask a few people there and I got a lot of positive things about him," said Coach Thomas through a written statement received by journalists, confiscated by Antara.

"He is a player who has speed. He is the type of player who likes to duel one on one. In my opinion, Oliver has the quality this team needs," continued Thomas.

Bias has indeed been in the uniform of the Leipzig youth team from 2015 to 2020. He then had time to move to several clubs, starting from Optik Rathenow (2020-2021), FC Nitra (2021), Azkals Development Team (2020-2022, 2023), Chiangmai United (2022-2023), and FK Pribram (2023).

The player that was born in Johanngeorstadt, Germany, has a record of 83 appearances and collected seven goals and 11 assists at junior and senior level competitions.

He has defended the German national team in several age groups, namely U-15, U-16 and U-17. Bias then started defending the Philippines U-23 national team and has played 11 times for the national team with a record of two assists.

With the arrival of Bias, Persija now has a total of four foreign players, namely Marko Simic, Ondrej Kudela, Ryo Matsumura, and Maciej Gajos, as well as one foreign player from Southeast Asia. According to the regulations of the league operator, namely PT LIB, Persija can still bring in one more foreign player.