"For the Indonesian team, of course we want to participate in the World Cup continuously," President of the Indonesian Football Federation Erick Thohir declared in a recent interview in the Netherlands. The success of Indonesian football in the past two years is the basis for the billionaire to continue to nurture big dreams.
"My goal is to take the Indonesian team to the World Cup, even the Olympics. Unfortunately, we failed once," Thohir added.
However, we will do it again at the 2028 Olympics. That is why we are building the U17 team. This is the first time in the history of Indonesian football that we have participated in all the U17, U20 and U23 Asian tournaments, with the hope of participating in the World Cup and the Olympics."
The Indonesian team is stronger thanks to naturalized players.
Indonesia is currently in the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia. With 6 points after 6 matches, the team from the archipelago is ranked third in Group C and has a great chance to enter the next round. Previously, the Indonesian U23 team reached the final play-off round to compete for a place in the 2024 Paris Olympics but failed.
The remarkable progress of the Indonesian national team and U23 team has been greatly contributed by the players of European origin. Most of them are Dutch-Indonesian (whose parents or grandparents are Indonesian). The Indonesian Football Federation has persuaded these players to become naturalized so that they can return to play for their home teams.
PSSI President Erick Thohir affirmed that Indonesian football will continue to promote this strategy. Most recently, three Dutch players have just completed the procedures to obtain Indonesian citizenship, eligible to play immediately for the national team of the archipelago.
"We actually have a naturalization strategy for a long time. This has been going on for three or four of my previous presidents. This is not new, but we are trying to naturalize players with good quality and national spirit. We do not randomly choose any player," Mr. Thohir explained.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/indonesia-tiep-tuc-nhap-tich-cau-thu-tham-vong-du-world-cup-2-lan-lien-tiep-ar923603.html
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