Timika – Papua Football Academy together with PT Freeport Indonesia has officially called 30 selected children who will become a new family at the Mimika Sports Complex homebase, they will join the 3rd Batch. The best Papuan children successfully competed with more than 2,000 children who participated in the 2024 Skills Search.
These 30 new students are believed to be promising talents. This is because the search for talent in the latest year is more widespread and the number of participants is greater.
The number of cities and regencies explored by the PFA scouting team includes 7 Cari Bakat 2024 roadshow points: Nabire, Merauke, Jayapura, Sorong, Biak, Manokwari and Mimika. In addition, 11 regions were visited or blusukan, such as Agats, Boven Digoel, Fak-Fak, Kaimana, Keerom, Sarmi, Sentani, Serui, Supiori, Waropen and Mappi. The total number of registered students is 2,110.
Papua Football Academy Director Wolfgang Pikal said he was optimistic that the quality of the 3rd batch of students would be better than before. The PFA Technical Team and management have made a number of efforts to get the best quality talent.
Papua Football Academy also applies higher standards than before in seeking new students due to current benchmarks. Selected students must also meet specific criteria and go through a rigorous selection process.
This is in line with the challenges and demands of modern soccer progress. The young talent that is desired is not only a talent of exceptional technical ability, but also concerns standards of posture and physical fitness.
“What’s different is that now we have added 18 cities. We want to find the best. We have strict selection standards, plus criteria, namely athleticism and high posture. The problem is that the current demands of the soccer market in Indonesia, even abroad, are interested in taking tall players. But if there are short players with special abilities like Messi, we still want to take (recruit),” explained the holder of this AFC Pro coach license.
Wolfgang is also very grateful to all football stakeholders in the regions who have helped and fully supported the organization of the talent search and visit. The former Assistant Coach of the national team also praised the dedication of local coaches and administrators who have struggled in fostering early childhood football.
“It’s amazing all the ladies and gentlemen and coaches from the areas we visited, thank you for helping and supporting PFA. The local coaches are also the ones who have fostered Papuan children to play soccer,” said Coach Wolf.