This is one of those weeks where Sergio van Dijk wishes he was 15 years younger.
The 42-year-old striker has long since retired after a career that took him from his native Netherlands, all the way down under to Australia, before stops in Iran, Indonesia and Thailand.
With ten clubs on his resume, some might call him a journeyman. Whatever you label him, at his peak he was a fearsome striker that was crowned leading scorer in the A-League in Australia in his first season with Adelaide United.
It was around that time that the prospect of representing Indonesia, the birthplace of both his grandparents, became something more concrete. There had been approaches from the PSSI, and after realising that a future with the Dutch national team was not a realistic prospect, the chance to play internationally was too good to turn down.
But whereas these days the process of naturalisation is well established, that was not the case when van Dijk became one of the first to go through the naturalisation process.
It took years to clear the bureaucratic red tape, but eventually he did and he was an Indonesian player.
Van Dijk, along with the likes of Irfan Bachdim, Raphael Maitimo and Stefano Lilipaly, were the first drops in Indonesia’s naturalisation program that, particularly in recent years, have since become a raging torrent.
Nowadays, almost three-quarters of the Timnas Indonesia squad is made up of naturalised players of Dutch heritage; a connection that harks back to the complicated colonial links between the two nations.
As Indonesia prepare for a must-win qualifier against Australia in Sydney this week – the two nations, outside the Netherlands, closest to van Dijk’s heart – there is more than a small part of the former striker that wishes he was part of this Indonesian squad that is potentially four matches away from qualifying for a first ever FIFA World Cup as an independent nation.
“I think about that often,” he said jokingly from his home in Groningen, “they are lacking a striking force.”
Currently sitting third in Group C behind Japan and Australia, they are one of four teams deadlocked on six points. They are ahead of Saudi Arabia only on goals scored, but six goals through six games isn’t exactly a stellar record.
With Rafael Struick and Ragnar Oratmangoen so far failing to be the consistent goal scorer that the team needs, new coach Patrick Kluivert has turned to another naturalised talent for this window in 24-year-old Ole Romeny.
The Dutch youth international is part of the latest cohort of players to be naturalised in recent years, which is approaching almost two dozen in the last three years alone and more than ten in the past 12 months alone, and comes with experience in the Dutch Eredivisie with NEC Nijmegen, FC Emmen and FC Utrecht.
He now plays in the Championship for Oxford United, making him a teammate of Marselino Ferdinan at the club part-owned by PSSI chairman, Erick Thohir.
“He has some experience on a good level, so I expect a lot from him,” van Dijk, now a successful businessman, told The Asian Game.
“But is he the real goal scorer that we need? I don’t know yet.”
The scale of Indonesia’s naturalisation project is almost unparalleled, and while it has seen a material improvement in their results, it’s not without its critics who think Indonesia is chasing the short-term sugar hit of World Cup qualification while ignoring the important foundations of youth development.
Van Dijk, who still pays close attention to the fortunes of the nation he fondly refers to as ‘we’, is one who shares some reservations about the approach.
“There are definitely downsides,” he remarks when asked about the naturalisation project.
“My main concern already was we are looking at results and stuff, but we are mostly looking at results in the short term. For the long term, I think this could be an issue.
“Because first of all, the local players could feel demotivated at this moment, not having a chance to make it or having a very difficult chance to make it into the national team.
“But also, if you look further than that, the future of Indonesia, how is that going to work? I mean, is it still a little boy or girl’s dream to become a national team player when there are so many naturalised players playing at this moment?
“I think we need to also consider, and we as Indonesia, consider putting that much effort in the main national team, but also putting that effort in the youth development.”
Those concerns would only have been heightened after new national coach coach, Patrick Kluivert, named his first squad earlier this month.
The extended squad of 29 included just ten players that were developed in Indonesia, headlined by young starlet Marselino, who provided one of the most iconic moments of this qualification campaign with his goal celebration in the 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia last November.
But there was no room for those locals who had been regulars, and valuable contributors, during the Shin Tae-yong era like Witan Sulaeman, Asnawi Mangkualam, Yakob Sayuri and Egy Maulana Vikri.
Instead there is a trio of newly naturalised talent in the form of former Sampdoria and Inter Milan goalkeeper, Emil Audero, Go Ahead Eagles left-back Dean James and former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder, Joey Pelupessy.
Appointing Kluivert always signalled a move in that direction, so the squad should come as no surprise.
While some will view this as short-sighted, it appears to be a risk Thohir and the PSSI is willing to take, gambling that qualification for the World Cup will create a halo effect right across Indonesian football.
Van Dijk sees merit in that argument, but with one important caveat – that youth development is prioritised in the aftermath should qualification be secured.
“This is the closest Indonesia has been to qualifying for a World Cup,” he explained.
“So, everybody is really wanting that sugar hit. So I can imagine that you say, ‘OK, let’s try to put everything on it to get qualified before the World Cup’, because that would be the best thing that ever happened in football Indonesia, and that could help us move forward.
“But not doing it like, ‘OK, we did this once, let’s try it again, the next time.’ No, we have to create a plan after this. Or, in my opinion, there already should be a plan at this moment for the future of Indonesian football.
He continued: “There needs to be a good plan for how to go forward into the future with developing quality football players in Indonesia.
“Because you can see at this moment that Indonesia is a country with around 300 million inhabitants, but no one is really playing on a decent – and I mean decent level in Europe, in the top five leagues, in the first team weekly, in the starting eleven.
“So there is talent, but there’s no plan on how to develop this talent. And that’s also mainly because Indonesia is so large, you have so many districts, but they are separate from each other. So they have their own rules and regulations about their their local football federation.
“They need to come up with with a much larger plan to develop this. Obviously, the halo of reaching the World Cup finals will help, but that’s not it.”
But to even get there, first they need to pick up points against Australia or Bahrain, or preferably, both.
In the first round of fixtures at the start of the campaign, Indonesia held Australia to a 0-0 draw in steamy Jakarta, while they were denied all three points by a late (some would say too late) equaliser in Bahrain.
Revenge against Bahrain at home is a must, but van Dijk also sees opportunities against Australia.
“I think Bahrain will be three points,” a confident van Dijk predicted.
“At home, especially with the motivation of what happened the last time over there. Looking back at the game against Saudi Arabia, if they play with the same intensity and with the same belief, the same type of football and concentration, I think we could get a good result against Bahrain.
“In my opinion, we need to keep Australia from scoring, and then whatever happens, if Indonesia scores or it’s a nil-all draw, that’s good for Indonesia.”
Listen to Episode 240 of The Asian Game Podcast as we discuss the AFC Champions League Elite, AFC Champions League Two and Asian Qualifiers.
