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President Joko Widodo while reviewing the progress of the construction of the PSSI Training Center (TC) in the National Capital of the Archipelago (IKN), East Kalimantan, Wednesday (17/1/2024). Photo: Presidential Secretariat
PENAJAM PASER NORTH – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) admitted that he was happy with the Indonesian National Team’s game in the 2023 Asian Cup. Even though they lost against the Iraqi National Team in Qatar, Monday, January 15 2024, Jokowi was quite satisfied because the Garuda Squad was dominated by young players.
Even though they lost to the Mesopotamian Lion Team, Jokowi was happy because the Garuda squad was filled with players who were the youngest on average among players from other countries in the 2023 Asian Cup.
“Building a good team takes time. “What I am happy about is that yesterday’s team, our average age, was the youngest in Indonesia, because it was under 24 years old,” said Jokowi when asked by journalists after reviewing the progress of the construction of the All Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) Training Center (TC) in Capital City of the Archipelago (IKN), North Penajam Paser, East Kalimantan, Wednesday (17/1/2024).
Jokowi said that the Indonesian national team’s players are predominantly young, which is good capital for Indonesia to get a strong national team in the medium and long term.
Indonesia is the youngest team to participate in the 2023 Asian Cup. The oldest player in the current Indonesian squad is Jordi Amat, 31 years old. Meanwhile, the youngest player is Marselino Ferdinan with 19 years and 2 months.
Other figures who are 19 years old are Hokky Caraka and Ivar Jenner. Shin Tae-yong has brought quite a lot of players under 23 years old.
Apart from Marselino, Hokky and Jenner, there are eight other names. They are Witan Sulaeman (22 years), Rizky Ridho (22 years), Prayama Arhan (22 years), Ernando Ari (21 years), Elkan Baggott (21 years), Ramadhan Sananta (21 years) Rafael Struick (20 years), and Justin Hubner 20 players).
Based on Transfermarkt data, the average age of players playing for the Indonesian National Team in the 2023 Asian Cup is 22.5 years as of January 9 2024.
The position is followed by Vietnam because the average player is 23.3 years old. Then, the average Japanese player is 23.7 years old. After that there is Uzbekistan with an average player age of 23.9 years.
“That’s very good in the medium and long term. And I saw yesterday that he played very well, but yes, the ball was round, just normal football. “We’ll see when we meet Vietnam,” said Joko Widodo.
After playing against Iraq, the Indonesian National Team is scheduled to meet fellow Group D opponents, namely Vietnam. The Indonesia vs Vietnam match will be held on Friday (19 January 2024) at 21.30 WIB.
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