Not Everyone Can Become Professional Players

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Football players aged 15 years train at the Angkasa Football School, Bandung, West Java, Wednesday (30/9/2020).

The dream to become a professional soccer player and to play for his favorite club prompted Seno, a 16-year-old senior high school student in West Java, to temporarily leave school last year to join the Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia (Persib) Bandung Academy training camp from August to December.

While at the training camp run by the Bandung-based soccer club, Seno trained for the Persib U-17 team for the Soe-Ratin Cup competition as a noncontractual player.

"I deferred my exam. No going to school (back and forth) because training was every day, morning and night. Each practice took 2 to 3 hours, morning and night. There was one day off, but this was not set," said Seno.

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Seno was paid Rp 500,000 after the soccer team he played with lost in the semifinals against Bandung United in a tournament to determine the West Java provincial team. However, he was still proud that he was able play for Persib.

"I was proud to join Persib, looking for experience, participating in competitions," he said.

The Persib training and education secretary, Ridwan Firdaus, said that young players at the Persib Academy who played on the teams for both the Soeratin Cup and the Elite Pro Academy (EPA) were not contractual players. Ridwan said that Persib recruited only those young players who had great talent and future potential.

"For the players who helped during the Soeratin Cup, we gave the mobile phone credit and food allowances. We provided these during the competition," said Ridwan.

KOMPAS/ADRIAN FAJRIANSYAH

General Secretary of Persib Training and Education, Ridwan Firdaus in Bandung, East Java, Wednesday (30/9/2020).

The rules on facilities that Indonesian soccer clubs must provide for youth players are not yet standardized. The Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) regulations for the EPA Liga 1 U-16 oblige clubs to sign young players to contracts and also provide scholarships. Meanwhile, the U-15 and U-17 Soeratin Cup Regulations contains no obligation for clubs to sign players or provide scholarships.

As a matter of fact, youth players are required to attend the club’s training camp for several months to play in competitions. Clubs should offer contracts to youth players to ensure that the players’ rights as children and students are fulfilled. Understandably, youth players are generally below the age of 18.

School first

What the Cipta Cendikia Soccer School (SSB) has instituted at its training camp in Bogor is an example of how clubs can protect young players. SSB Intan Cipta Cendikia pays special attention to contractual agreements to ensure that the players’ right to education are fulfilled.

Last year, at least four youth players from soccer schools joined the PS Barito Putera professional soccer club in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan: Raka S. Rahadi (17, from Depok), Rafi Hamdani (17, Depok), Kaka Irawan (16, Medan) and Muhammad Adlin (16, from Medan).

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After passing the selection process in early 2019, the four players signed a yearlong contract in April 2019 to play for PS Barito Putera. The contracts included terms on the benefits the club would provide them. These included scholarships of Rp 1.7 million each for Kaka and Adlin and Rp 2 million each for Raka and Rafi.

They decided to pursue the distance learning program of Cipta Cendikia School, which offered flexible hours so they could adjust their school hours to fit the club’s training schedule.

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Bhayangkara FC I defender I Putu Gede Juni Antara (right) and Persija Jakarta striker Marko Simic (left) leap for the ball during Indonesia’s top-tier league, Shopee Liga 1, at the Police Higher Education College Stadium in South Jakarta on March 14. The players have to wait for a long time before they can resume matches in Liga 1, which has been suspended for the past seven months.

Cipta Cendikia School, a boarding school, runs on the principle that young soccer players must continue with their formal education, even though they wanted to become professional soccer players.

"I want to go to college later, because I don\'t know until what age I can still play soccer," said Kaka.

However, Adlin said that he and the other three youths had not returned to PS Barito Putera since December 2019. That month, they returned to Bogor for a holiday, but they had been unable to get back to PS Barito Putera because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although they were still unable to return to the club, Adlin said that he and his friends had received assurances from the club that it would still sign them after the pandemic ended.

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"Most likely, we will return to play when there is another competition," he added.

PS Barito Putera manager Mundari Karya confirmed that the club had sent the young players home because there were no competitions during the health crisis. In addition, he continued, the pandemic also hit the national soccer clubs’ finances, including Barito Putera. But he promised that its current youth players would be prioritized for recruiting them to the club’s senior team.

Here (at Cipta Cendikia School), the priority is to study, not play soccer.

"Later, when competitions resume, we will call them back," he said.

Dede Supriyadi, a coach at Cipta Cendekia School, said the soccer school had provided assistance to the young players since the beginning of their training so they would be recruited by soccer clubs that could fulfill their rights to education and welfare. The school also made sure that the young players continued to prioritize their formal education.

"Here (at Cipta Cendikia School), the priority is to study, not play soccer. They are also trained and taught self-discipline, so they can focus on [both] learning and [soccer] practice,” he said.

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Soccer Club in Indonesia

No rush

Joining a professional soccer club is 17-year-old Roni\'s (not his real name) biggest dream. However, he decided not to rush into joining a club that had expressed interest in him.

Since he graduated a West Java junior high school in 2018, Roni has been approached by at least four coaches and agents who tried to persuade him to join either PS Tira Persikabo or PS Barito Putera.

The offer was tempting because if he joined a professional club, Roni would have an opportunity to play in the coveted EPA U-16 competition. However, Roni declined the offers because he enrolled at the West Java Student Development and Training Center (PPLPD) after graduating junior high school.

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The West Java administration covers all costs of his education and sports training, and also gives him an allowance. In return, Roni is required to complete his study program at the training center. If he withdrew, he would have to pay Rp 70 million back to the center.

Guarantee

Now, my aim is to finish school first. The important thing is to finish school.

Roni said that another reason why he did not make a hasty decision to join a professional club was because there was no a guarantee that the club would offer educational facilities or payment.

His father, T.D., had also advised Roni to complete his studies at the West Java PPLPD.

"Now, my aim is to finish school first. The important thing is to finish school. If you want to study at a college or find a job, you have to have a high school diploma,” he said.

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Soni, not his real name, was met at his house on Sunday (20/9/2020).

Roni realizes that his dream to become a professional soccer player may not have a happy ending. He had already seen a friend, 18-year-old Soni (not his real name), be abandoned in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, after he was cut from a local club.

"(Soni) once lived in Kalimantan. Just to play soccer, he wasn’t paid. He was there for a year. Then he went home (because he was dropped from the club), and he said he would be contacted again when the Elite Pro (Elite Pro Academy League 1 U-16) started. In the end, he never got a callback,” said Roni.

Soni was recruited as a youth player to Samarinda’s Borneo FC in 2017, when he was just 15 years old, and the soccer club never gave him a formal contract. He was dropped from the club due to injury, and has not been recruited to play on the Borneo FC U-16 team.

Soccer data analyst Asep Padian, who chairs the Team 11 Football Data Analysis, said that young players must complete their formal education, because not all young players would become professional players. Becoming a professional soccer player required both an education and discipline, not just soccer skills.