Indonesian football observer Justinus Lhaksana said that the sport of football is developing very rapidly in Indonesia after the achievements made by the Indonesian national team in the senior and U-23 categories.
“Football is really (growing) very powerfully in Indonesia. A phenomenon that I have never even seen in other countries,” said the coach who is familiarly called Coach Justin as quoted from his personal Instagram page: @coachjustinl in Jakarta, Thursday.
The former coach of the Indonesian national futsal team said that this was the first time he had seen the rapidly growing achievements of Indonesian football, both the senior and U-23 national teams.
Indonesia succeeded in becoming the country with the highest ranking increase based on the FIFA rankings released on April 4, namely from 142nd place to 134th in the world.
The increase in ranking was inseparable from the Indonesian national team’s victory over Vietnam in the 2026 World Cup Qualification event in the Asian zone which was held in March, which resulted in Garuda collecting 30.04 points to become 1102.7 points.
Apart from that, the Indonesian U-23 national team also made new history by qualifying for the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup. Not only did they qualify, Garuda Muda even reached the semifinals after defeating Asian giants such as South Korea and Australia.
Despite losing to Uzbekistan in the semifinals, Garuda Muda still has the opportunity to add to its record of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics through a decisive match against Iraq to win third place.
“We are hungry for achievement, for years we have not achieved (at Asian level or world rankings), in fact during the 25 years I have lived in Indonesia, this is the first time we have really… “Really achieving, not only the senior national team but also the U-23s,” he said.
He said, on the other hand, Indonesian people also really enjoy the current development of Indonesian football which is shown through their enthusiasm for participating in group viewing events or watching together (nobar) in various regions in the country.
When Garuda Muda defeated South Korea for the first time after always losing in the last seven previous meetings, the Indonesian people in various regions showed extraordinary euphoria, even holding parades carrying the Red and White flag.
“Seeing the celebrations in small towns, squares, so many spectators, including the ones we lost against Uzbekistan, were fully backed up, that was an extraordinary thing,” he said.