Indonesia naturalizes Dutch 'killer' at lightning speed, challenging Vietnam at Southeast Asian U23 tournament

TPO - Indonesia has just naturalized a striker from the Netherlands. They are speeding up the process of changing the player's nationality so that he can soon wear the U23 team jersey and compete in the U23 Southeast Asian tournament.

Mauro Zijlstra is a 20-year-old striker who plays for FC Volendam.

During the naturalization process, Indonesian Football Federation President Erick Thohir personally intervened to speed up the process. "I sent a letter to the Minister of Youth and Sports. The Minister of Youth and Sports was also very open. Then he brought the matter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs . And of course, we will soon receive the President's approval," Erick Thohir explained.

“We know that there is still a lack of young (naturalized) players for the U23 team. So, hopefully we can help the U23 team strengthen its force through this.” Through Mr. Thohir’s statement, it can be believed that Mauro Zijlstra will soon have Indonesian citizenship.

The 20-year-old striker is currently playing for Volendam in the Dutch Second Division. Last season, he played 6 matches and did not score any goals. But in the youth team, Mauro Zijlstra is a very formidable name. He scored 17 goals in just 21 matches for the Volendam U19 team.

Indonesia confident with many young talents

With Mauro Zijlstra and Jens Raven, Indonesia has two high-quality "guns" and they can confidently compete in the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 tournament, which will take place from July 14.

The rapid naturalization move shows that Indonesia is determined to win the Southeast Asian U23 Championship, an event that they will host. After this tournament, Indonesia will also compete in the 2026 Asian U23 qualifiers and further, the 33rd SEA Games. With Jens Raven and Mauro Zijlstra, Indonesia can be completely confident of achieving high results in tournaments this year.

Meanwhile, for Vietnam, the team is also optimistic with two high-quality naturalized players, Viktor Le and Bui Alex. Both play in attacking positions and are expected to help coach Kim Sang-sik apply many diverse tactics for the team.

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/indonesia-nhap-tich-than-toc-sat-thu-ha-lan-thach-thuc-viet-nam-tai-giai-u23-dong-nam-a-post1757007.tpo