Indonesian soccer supporters are in euphoria after the U-23 team entered the semifinal in Qatar 2024. In fact, most players are naturalization players. They are diasporas of Indonesian who live in Europe. Their characters, skills and traditions are different from Indonesian players.
Indonesia has long history why there are many Indonesian descendants who live in Europe mainly Netherlands. The migration of thousands of Javanese people and some people from Maluku and other Islands in Indonesia in the Dutch colonization era has noted as the spread of Indonesian descendants who live in Netherlands and Europe today.
There is still feeling of Nationalism to their ancestors home land for the third generation. It is one of the reason some players want to become Indonesian Citizen and play in the Indonesian team.
Soccer player is not a promising career
The skill of Indonesian player is still below the diaspora of Indonesian players who live in Europe. In Indonesia , most parents still consider a career as a soccer player is not promising in the future. There are a lot of soccer schools for kids to get talented young players. However, after the kids become teenagers, the parents will discontinue their training for their kids in the soccer schools. They will send the kids to English, computer, or math and science courses. They still see working in companies or government offices is better than being a soccer player.
Besides that, the local competition is not as good as the European competition. The salary of local players is not as good as the salary of players in Premier league , Laliga and other European competitions.
The golden age of local player is from 19 to 30 years old. After that, those players will be unemployed. It is a big problem because some of the Indonesian local competition players change their professions.
Those facts are reasons why most parents still see that becoming soccer players is a not promising career. In my opinion, Indonesian players will be as good as the diaspora players if the local competition is as good as the European competition.
