Identifying AFF Cup: Indonesia team and player naturalization policy

Recently, Indonesian youth football has not had good results, so coach Shin Tae-Yong does not have the same advantages as coach Park Hang-seo. The two best scorers in the Indonesian Championship with 10 goals are not Indonesian players. The striker Spasojevic (born 1987) of Bali United Club is Montenegrin and striker Youssef Ezzejjari Lhasnaoui (born 1993) of Persik Kediri is Spanish. Even striker Carlos (Arema) and Marko (Persija) who scored 8 goals after 14 rounds are of Portuguese and Croatian nationality.

Recall naturalized players

Mr. Shin Tae-Yong proposed to do the procedures to call these players to the team to send to Singapore but did not have time to do the procedures. He could only call the 34-year-old Montenegrin striker of Bali United Club, who is the top scorer of this tournament. Falling into the group with Thailand, the host Singapore is considered to be better than Indonesia so Mr. Shin Tae-Yong had to do everything to upgrade the attack.

Striker Spasojevic (Montenegro) played for the Indonesian national team for the first time in 2017. But for various reasons, his predecessors in the national team only called him up twice. With 10 goals after 13 appearances for Bali United and becoming the best striker in the Indonesian championship. So after consideration, coach Shin Tae-Yong decided to call back this 34-year-old striker to participate in the AFF Cup 2020. With a height of 1.87m, a weight of 85kg, he plays aggressively, but still has skillful technical moves that will be ready to threaten any defense.

With 4 naturalized players, spread out across 3 lines, coach Shin Tae-Yong is confident that he will compete fairly with Thailand and host Singapore. Photo: AFC

Another naturalized player who was also called back to the national team by coach Shin Tae-Yong is defender Igbonefo (Nigeria), who is 36 years old this year. This center-back with a very good physical foundation left the Indonesian team 6 years ago. Center-back Igbonefo is currently playing for Persib Club, which is currently ranked second in the Indonesian championship. This player is also 1.86m tall and plays very hard to collide to prevent the opposing striker from attacking.

Add quality naturalized players

Midfielder 28 Klok (Netherlands), Igbonefo's teammate, is also in very good form at Persib Club. This season, he has scored 2 goals after 11 appearances, and Klok also has 3 assists thanks to the typical style of play of Dutch football. Having played in Indonesia for 5 years, Klok is qualified to become a citizen and play for the national team. At the AFF Cup 2021, Klok will be the new face of Indonesia, facing the technical midfielders of Thailand.

In defense, he has just introduced 1.97m tall center-back Baggott who plays for Ipswich Town Club in the English Third Division. Baggott was born in 2002 in Bangkok (Thailand), with an Indonesian mother and an English father. This young talent spent his childhood in Thailand. Then his family moved to Indonesia in 2008. And then decided to settle in England 3 years later. Elkan played for U.18 Ipswich Town in the 2021 FA Youth Cup semi-final against Liverpool.

Young talent Baggott, 19, is playing for Ipswich Town in the English Third Division. Photo: CNN

In the match against Afghanistan (lost 0-1), this 19-year-old midfielder played as a center back in a 5-4-1 formation. The young player's strengths are his ability to fight in the air and block in one-on-one situations thanks to his good physical foundation.

With 4 naturalized players, spread out across 3 lines, Coach Shin Tae-Yong is confident that he will compete fairly with Thailand, host Singapore and any Southeast Asian team. If this strategy is successful at the AFF Cup 2020, the Indonesian Football Federation will continue to pursue this policy in the future./.