ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) on Wednesday afternoon, January 8 2025, officially announced Patrick Kluivert as coach of the Indonesian national team replacing Shin Tae-yong who had been fired.
Kluivert will be contracted for two years from 2025 to 2027 with the option to extend the contract, with the immediate target being to bring Indonesia to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
He will be assisted by two assistant coaches from the Netherlands, namely Alex Pastoor and Denny Landzaat. Apart from these two names, there will be two local Indonesian coaches who will become assistant coaches.
Kluivert is not a foreign name in the world of football because the man who is now 48 years old is a legend of the Dutch national team who has played for big clubs, such as Ajax Amsterdam, AC Milan and FC Barcelona.
He won the Champions League and European Super Cup with Ajax, and also won the Spanish League with Barcelona. As a striker, he collected 206 goals in 480 matches during his career. This number does not include his 40 goals with the Dutch national team, with one top scorer title at Euro 2000 with five goals when he took his country to the semifinals.
Meanwhile, his coaching career mostly involved being an assistant coach. Meanwhile, as a coach, Kluivert has only coached two teams since he retired in 2008 with LOSC Lille, but at most no more than 1.5 years. The two teams are the Curacao national team (March 2015 – June 2016, May 2021 – October 2021) and the Turkish club Adana Demirspor (July 2023 – December 2023).
The statistics for the two periods with Curacao were four wins, four draws and six defeats from 14 matches, while with Adana Demirspor it was eight wins, six draws and six defeats from 20 matches.
Kluivert is planned to arrive in Indonesia on Saturday, January 11 2025 and will be introduced to the public the following day, Sunday, January 12 2025.
His debut as coach for Indonesia will be the two third round qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup against Australia and Bahrain on March 20 and 25. (AT Network)
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