Shin Tae-Yong Calls Up 10 Naturalized Players for 2026 World Cup Qualifiers
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7 March 2024 20:20 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's football team coach, Shin Tae-Yong, has set a new precedent in the country's football history by summoning ten naturalized players for an upcoming tournament, which is the highest number of naturalized players ever included in the team.
The Indonesian Football Association(PSSI) earlier released the names of 28 national players who will participate in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in the Asian zone against Vietnam on March 21 and 26, out of which 10 are naturalized players.
Among these, six have already been enlisted in the Merah Putih squad, namely, Jordi Amat, Sandy Walsh, Justin Hubner, Marc Klok, Ivar Jenner, and Rafael Struick, while the remaining four are new players, namely Jay Idzes, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Thom Haye, and Ragnar Oratmangoen.
Three out of these four new names are not officially Indonesian citizens. Ragnar and Thom's naturalization process has just been approved by Commission X and Commission III of the House of Representatives (DPR) on March 7, while Nathan still has to take the oath.
This decision marks the national team's largest composition of naturalized players, surpassing the previous record set in the 2023 Asian Cup, where seven naturalized players were included in the first team.
The South Korean coach Shin Tae-Yong emphasized that the inclusion of naturalized players aimed at reinforcing the national team. Since taking charge of the Garuda squad in December 2019, eleven players have undergone the process of transferring their citizenship. Ten of them have been mentioned above, and the other one is Shayne Pattynama, a defender from KAS Eupen, who will be absent in the upcoming matches due to injury.
“Naturalized players are indeed very helpful for local players. Maybe local players deem it unfair, but it's a global era now, and my philosophy is that I won’t call up players who don't have Indonesian blood,” Shin Tae-Yong said in an interview with Tempo in Senopati, South Jakarta, on February 2, 2024.
“Incorporating naturalized players can transform the mentality of the local players. By blending the squad (local and naturalized), local players can gain experience and feel the intensity of the game. So please don't look at the naturalized players through a racial lens,” said Shin Tae-yong.
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