PAPUA – Papuan football cannot be said to be left behind, but it cannot be said to be advanced either. Therefore, it needs a big acceleration to help Papuan talents. One way that is considered to be a solution is to make Papuan talents appear on the world stage. The initial stage that is considered suitable is the Gothia Cup in Sweden.
The Gothia Cup is also known as the youth soccer world cup. The event, which takes place in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, will be half a century old in 2025.
Papua Football Academy, which is a team coached by Freeport Indonesia, wants to take part in 2025. Before that, a bridging tournament was held. The tournament is called Meet the World. This event will take place in November. The age category being contested is U-13 specifically in Papua.
For the other six regions, in Jakarta, Bandung, Solo, Surabaya, Pekanbaru and Makassar, specifically for U-12. Later, from this event the winner will be sent to participate in the Gothia Cup 2025. PSSI Chairman Erick Thohir considers the Gothia Cup an important event for Papuan children to follow. Therefore Erick paid special attention to this grassroots tournament.
“For that, I am present at the Gothia Cup event this afternoon because this is in order to build from the grassroots related to youth soccer nurseries,” said Erick Thohir.
Wolfgang Pikal, Technical Director of Papua Football Academy, assessed that the Gothia Cup could be a means for Papuan children and other Indonesian talents to hone their talent and quality.
Every time the Gothia Cup is held, hundreds of talent scouts are present. They are looking for the best talents from around the world to be recruited by European clubs. Pikal wants to take advantage of this.
“Hopefully one of our players [Papua Football Academy] will be scouted. We will prepare the team as well as possible before July next year,” said Pikal.
So far, Indonesia has only won the Gothia Cup once. That happened in 2016 through ASIOP Apacinti U-14. One of the players who appeared in 2016 was Egy Maulana Vikri. According to SKF President Director Satheswaran Mayachandran, as the organizer of Meet the World, this event will revive Indonesian grassroots football through the Gothia Cup.
“This event is not just a competition but also builds the character of the younger generation in Indonesia through teamwork, fair play, leadership and friendship,” said Satheswaran.
