Dutch expert: Naturalizing players does not help Indonesian football

On ESPN’s Voetbalpraat program, Indonesia’s 5-1 loss to Australia in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers on March 20 became the topic of discussion. Coach Patrick Kluivert fielded a squad with 10/11 naturalized players (born in Europe, of Indonesian descent). Only Marselino Ferdinan is a native.

While pundits Kees Kwakman and Kenneth Perez analyzed the individual mistakes of Indonesian players, Schildkamp ignored it: "I'm surprised that people immediately focused on the content of the match. What's going on there is a joke, right?".

The Indonesian team used a squad with 10 naturalized players in the 1-5 loss to Australia.

Schildkamp continued: "In recent years, Indonesia has granted citizenship to more than 20 players in the hope of qualifying for the World Cup. In the past, when Beerschot had 11 Ivorian players, everyone was talking about it. Qatar naturalized many Brazilian players, which also caused a lot of controversy. But now, we think this is great, just because they are players who played in the Eredivisie (the Dutch national championship)."

The presenter commented that this is a general trend and fans in the Netherlands and Indonesia like it. However, expert Schildkamp said that this strategy is only supported when the team of thousands of islands has good results.

He commented: “This approach does not help football in this country. No matter how you look at it, it is clearly an opportunistic approach. If, after losing 1-5 to Australia, the Indonesian team loses 0-1 to Bahrain next week, then this whole circus will be dismantled immediately.”

The Indonesian national team has been pushing the "Dutchification" strategy in the past 3 years, when billionaire Erick Thohir became the president of the country's football federation. The squad often has about 9-10 naturalized players (with or without Indonesian origin) on the field, helping the team of the archipelago to be strongly upgraded.

Coach Shin Tae-yong helped Indonesia reach the 1/8 round of the 2023 Asian Cup, passed the second round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia and still have a chance to compete for a place in the final round. In addition, the Korean coach led the U23 Indonesia team to the play-off match for a ticket to the Olympics. However, he was still fired due to poor communication with the European players. The Indonesian Football Federation appointed former Dutch player Patrick Kluivert as his replacement.

Mr. Ngoc

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/chuyen-gia-ha-lan-nhap-tich-cau-thu-khong-giup-bong-da-indonesia-ar933226.html