Menpora Opens Way for Collaborative Development with Al Nassr

Menpora establishes coaching collaboration with Al Nassr. The Saudi club also has the opportunity to tour Indonesia.

KEMENPORA

Al Nassr Club CEO, Guido Fienga, presented a souvenir in the form of a club's star jersey of Al Nassr to the Minister of Youth and Sports of Indonesia, Dito Ariotedjo, during a working visit to Al Nassr Club Headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday (30/4/2024).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — On the sidelines of providing direct support to the Indonesian U-23 team at the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup in Qatar, the Minister of Youth and Sports Dito Ariotedjo made his third working visit Middle Eastern countries, namely Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Most recently, Dito is exploring opportunities for collaboration in developing early childhood footballers with Al Nassr, a giant Saudi club which is also the team of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Dito met with Al Nassr CEO Guido Fienga at the club's headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday (30/4/2024). The meeting was a follow-up to the bilateral commitment between President Joko Widodo and Saudi Arabia's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, which was established back in October 2023.

Al Nassr is the first professional club to collaborate with the Ministry of Youth and Sports. In his previous visits to Qatar and the UAE, Dito conducted meetings and collaborations with representatives of the ministries/sports institutions in the two Arab peninsula countries.

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In the meeting, Dito discussed the potential of talent scouts from Al Nassr to provide opportunities to monitor potential young players in Indonesia. Dito mentioned that the future generation of Indonesian football is currently in its prime era. This is evidenced by the achievement of the Indonesia U-23 team, which reached the semifinals of the 2024 Asian U-23 Cup and came close to qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

KEMENPORA

Minister of Youth and Sports, Dito Ariotedjo, listened to a presentation from Al Nassr Club CEO Guido Fienga during his working visit to the Al Nassr Headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday (30/4/2024).

"Indonesia has many talented young football players, both male and female. I hope Al Nassr can be one of the clubs that is willing to open its doors for young Indonesian players to develop their careers abroad," said Dito in an official statement on Wednesday (1/5/2024).

Although they failed to win the Saudi League and the Asian Champions League titles this season, Al Nassr is a team that has shown a great commitment to improving youth development and women's football in Saudi Arabia.

The young team of Al-Nassr U-15, consisting of Ronaldo's son, Cristiano Ronaldo Jr, finished the Saudi U-15 League season in second place. Meanwhile, the Al-Nassr women's squad successfully defended their Saudi Women's League trophy, which recently completed its third season this year. They have collected two Saudi Women's League champion titles.

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On the other hand, Dito also discussed the potential of making Indonesia as one of the foreign tour destinations for Al Nassr. The large number of Ronaldo fans in Indonesia presents a huge market opportunity for Al Nassr to expand its global influence. In the 2022-2023 preseason, Al Nassr will play test matches in several countries, such as Portugal and Japan.

AFP/FAYEZ NURELDINE

Al Nassr's attacker, Cristiano Ronaldo, appeared in the Asian Champions League match against UAE club, Al-Ain, at Al-Awal Park Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 11, 2024.

Badminton

In addition to soccer, Dito and Fienga also discussed the opportunity for developing badminton that is being planned by Al Nassr. Dito opened the possibility to assist Al Nassr in bringing the best Indonesian coaches to develop the club's young badminton athletes.

"We have many talented badminton coaches who can develop the talents of badminton athletes at Al Nassr," said Dito.

Dito's commitment was positively welcomed by Fienga. "We are very open to collaborating on developing young talents in football and badminton with Indonesia," said Fienga, who comes from Portugal.