Ahead of the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 tournament, the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) has announced a list of 30 players called up to the national U23 team, of which only one is naturalized.
This move surprised experts and fans in the region, in the context of Indonesian football being famous for using many foreign-born players in recent years.
In this call-up list, the only name with naturalized blood is Jens Raven - a striker currently playing in the Netherlands, who was in the U20 Indonesia squad participating in the 2025 U20 Asian Cup finals.
The presence of only one naturalized player is a notable change compared to previous Indonesian teams, where 80% of the force was mixed or naturalized players.
This personnel strategy shows signs of PSSI's shift when focusing more on domestic players, instead of continuing to rely on foreign factors.
However, under the leadership of Dutch coach Donald Vanenburg, U23 Indonesia is still highly appreciated and is one of the strong candidates for the championship.
Changing the personnel strategy could be a step towards sustainable development of youth football, while creating more opportunities for domestic talents.
The 2025 U23 Southeast Asian Championship will take place from July 15 to July 31, 2025 in Indonesia. In the group stage, 10 teams will compete in a round-robin to calculate points.
The three group winners and the second-placed teams with the best results will qualify for the semi-finals. A noteworthy point is the way of considering the performance between the second-placed teams, the second-placed team of Group A will not be counted for results with the team at the bottom of the table.
