Indonesia hires former Barcelona star Patrick Kluivert as head coach

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Indonesia hires former Barcelona star Patrick Kluivert as head coach

2025-01-09 08:55 Last Updated At：09:01

Patrick Kluivert is unlikely to experience much culture shock when he starts his time as head coach of Indonesia.

The majority of players on the men’s national team were born or raised in the Netherlands, where Kluivert made his name as a successful striker.

The rapid naturalization of players from overseas who are eligible to represent Indonesia through a parent or grandparent, is the key to why the former Barcelona and Ajax star was appointed Indonesia’s soccer federation, the PSSI.

Indonesia and Netherlands have ties dating back centuries. Indonesia declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1945.

The 48-year-old Kluivert was confirmed as the new head coach Wednesday to replace Shin Tae-yong, the South Korean coach who was contentiously dismissed two days earlier.

Since Shin started in Jakarta in 2020, Indonesia has achieved unprecedented results and is in the running to reach the 2026 World Cup for the first time since 1938 — when it appeared as Dutch East Indies.

With four games remaining in the third round of Asian qualification, Indonesia is third in its six-team group, just one point behind second-place Australia. The top two in each group qualify automatically for the 2026 tournament, while third- and fourth-place teams advance to the next stage in Asia.

Such progress, which also included a first ever place in the knockout stages of the Asian Cup last January, made Shin a popular figure in Indonesia.

Joko Widodo was president of Indonesia throughout most of the Korean’ coach's tenure.

“I know coach Shin closely, and in my opinion, he has a charming personality and a great way of interacting with people,” Widodo, who left office in October, said Tuesday. “If you ask me whether I like Shin, of course I do. But like it or not, the decision has been made by PSSI.”

Shin’s son, Shin Jae-won, a professional player in South Korea, blasted the Indonesian federation's decision. “Over the past five years, Indonesia have climbed 50 places in the FIFA rankings and are third in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, yet the coach is fired?” Shin wrote on social media.

Results may have improved but the character and identity of the team changed. In November, a 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia in World Cup qualification was widely celebrated across Indonesia, despite eight of the starting 11 being naturalized players. There are plans to naturalize more Dutch-born players in the coming months.

PSSI Chairman Erick Thohir believes Kluivert will be a more natural coach for such a team and be able to get his message across much more easily than his Korean-speaking predecessor.

“We see the need for a leader who is better able to implement the strategies agreed upon by the players, and who has better communication,” Thohir said.

Ultimately, the success of the decision will be judged by results on the field. Kluivert kicks off with a crucial qualifier against Australia in Sydney on March 20 and then Indonesia hosts Bahrain in Jakarta five days later. The third round ends in June with games against China and the group’s runaway leader, Japan.

“We are in a different class compared with Japan but winning against Saudi Arabia was a very good result,” former national team striker Greg Nwokolo said. “I hope this is the best decision. If the new coach succeeds, PSSI will be praised but if he fails, it means our dreams are shattered.”

Kluivert had a stellar playing career, winning the Champions League with Ajax, and has prior international coaching experience in charge of Curacao.

The former AC Milan and Newcastle striker was also assistant coach to Louis van Gaal with the Netherlands and Clarence Seedorf with Cameroon. Kluivert is set to arrive in Jakarta on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s official unveiling.

PSSI said in a statement he’d been contracted for 2025-27, with an option to extend.

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More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, officials say

2025-01-09 22:57 Last Updated At：23:00

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday, with no end in sight to the 15-month conflict.

The ministry said a total of 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 wounded. It has said women and children make up more than half the fatalities, but does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians.

The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in residential areas. Israel has also repeatedly struck what it claims are militants hiding in shelters and hospitals, often killing women and children.

In recent weeks, Israel and Hamas have appeared to inch closer to an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that a deal is “very close” and he hopes to complete it before handing over U.S diplomacy to the incoming Trump administration.

But he and other U.S. officials have expressed similar optimism on several occasions over the past year, only to see the indirect talks stall.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza. Israeli authorities believe at least a third of them were killed in the initial attack or have died in captivity.

The war has flattened large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its 2.3 million people, with many forced to flee multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into sprawling tent camps along the coast with limited access to food and other essentials.

“What we are living is not a life. Nobody could bear the situation we’re experiencing for a single day,” Munawar al-Bik, a displaced woman, told The Associated Press in an interview this week.

“We wake up at night to the sounds of men crying, because of the bad situation,” she said. “The situation is unbearable. We have no energy left: we want it to end today.”

Al-Bik spoke on a dusty road in the southern city of Khan Younis next to a destroyed building. Behind her, a sea of makeshift tents filled with displaced families stretched into the distance.

On Thursday, dozens of people took part in funeral prayers outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah for people killed in Israeli strikes the day before.

In the hospital morgue, a man could be seen kneeling and bidding farewell to a relative before slamming a refrigerator door in an outburst of grief.

Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes killed at least nine people in Gaza on Wednesday, including three infants — among them a 1-week-old baby — and two women.

Khaled reported from Cairo.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war