Indonesia's core Shin Tae-yong is not the reason for the crazy claim? I'm speechless because I didn't win

Jul 31, 2025

An Indonesian media outlet seriously disparaged Shin Tae-yong's achievements.

Indonesian media Okezone Bola claimed on the 30th (Korea time) that "Indra Shafri, not Shin Tae-yong or Gerald Vannenberg, is a key figure in the Indonesian national team on the Southeast Asian stage."

Looking back on the past 30 years, Shapri is the only coach who has led Indonesia's under-23 (U-23) national team to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) U-23 Championship and the Southeast Asian Games (SEA). He began claiming that in the 2019 AFF U-22 Championship final, he defeated Thailand U-22 2-1 to give Indonesia its first championship title.

Four years later, the 62-year-old Shafri led Indonesia's U-22 national team to a gold medal in the 2023 SEA. Indonesia defeated Thailand's U-22 5-2 in the final. The gold medal was Indonesia's first SEA soccer gold medal in 32 years. He also led the U-19 national team and won the AFF U-19 Championship in 2013 and 2024. All these facts show that Shafri is the coach of the Southeast Asian stage 'Winning Guaranteed' only Shafri praised him.

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Since then, the media has begun to compare strangely with Shafri while mentioning Shin Tae-yong. Coach Shin Tae-yong led the Indonesian national team for five years from 2020 to 2025. He succeeded in advancing the Indonesian national team to the round of 16 at the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup and the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 North-China World Cup, but he had no experience of winning a regional tournament. Indonesia, led by him, finished second in the 2021 AFF Championship and was eliminated in the group stage in 2024. The U-23 team also finished second after losing to Vietnam in the 2023 final. The U-19 team was eliminated from the group stage after falling behind Thailand and Vietnam in the 2022 AFF U-19 Championship.

Shafri's achievements are also great, but it is a ridiculous argument to undermine coach Shin Tae-yong for not winning. The tournament won by Shafri is in Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia is classified as a strong team in terms of power.

However, Indonesia is not a strong team outside Southeast Asia. It is ridiculous for Indonesia to seek the championship at the Asian Cup, where South Korea, Japan, Australia and Iran participate. Qualifying for the third World Cup qualifying round is also an indispensable achievement. This is because it was the first time in Indonesian soccer history to advance to the third qualifying round. It is true that Indonesian soccer has made tremendous progress under coach Shin Tae-yong. In the first place, achievements in the national team by age and performance in the national team are difficult to compare.

If Shin Tae-yong had failed to produce results in Indonesia, no one would have objected when he replaced Shin Tae-yong. The reality of Indonesia now is that there are countless fans who miss coach Shin Tae-yong. I can't get rid of the feeling that the criticism toward head coach Shin Tae-yong is unreasonable.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.