TOP-FLIGHT FOOTBALL returned to Indonesia over the weekend as former Chelsea stars Michael Essien and Carlton Cole made their debuts for Persib Bandung.
Essien and Cole played their first game for Persib, who finished fifth in last year’s Indonesian Soccer Championship, in front of almost 35,000 fans at the Gelora Bandung Lautan Api Stadium.
The 34-year-old Essien gave an impressive display in midfield, while Carlton Cole arrived off the bench in the second-half but failed to find the net in a 0-0 draw with Arema.
Essien, a two-time Premier League winner, will earn a reported salary of €800,000 after signing a one-year contract. Cole joined Persib just two weeks after his former Chelsea team-mate, follwing brief stints with Sacramento Republic in the US and at Scottish giants Celtic.
Persib coach Djadang Nurdjaman praised the Ghanian midfielder after the game.
“I am happy with his performance,” said Nurdjaman. ”He is now playing in a subtropical climate and still needs time to adapt. His touch is still special and he entertained the fans.”
It represented a significant milestone for Indonesian football, after after a two-year absence sparked by a major crisis.
Liga 1 replaces an old top-level league, which was halted in 2015 due to a row between the government and local FA that triggered turmoil and led to the country being hit with a one-year ban by FIFA.
The league is long-awaited and seen as a major boost for football in Southeast Asia’s biggest nation, with supporters hoping it could mark a turning point for the sport after years of problems.
In addition to the arrivals of Essien and Cole, ex-West Bromwich Albion forward Peter Odemwingie joined Madura United.
-Additional reporting by AFP
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12k seats – how many do Pats get for a typical game? I’m not trolling btw, I honestly don’t know!
@John S: sounds like you are trolling, why do attendances matter? Rovers don’t sell out tallaght yet their building another stand, it’s all to make the league and the facilities better to make people feel more welcomed.
Won’t get anywhere with smart arses like yourself holding the LOI clubs back. Gareth Kelleher was putting his own money in, no grants, no tax payers money, no government funding, yet you’ll still find a way to complain when clubs are trying to improve the league… you can’t win
@Benny Millar: I’m not trolling, why don’t attendances matter? Because Irish Sport is full of white elephants with no atmosphere. Hhow often would they exceed say 5k? Wouldn’t that be a more appropriate size stadium than a 1/2 full stadium with no atmosphere?
@John S: average attendance is 1600 but personally I’d have no problem if they built this and put up giant banners behind the goal ends with ads & took them down if they managed to get back up into larger crowds, I think with decent facility’s & good prices they could attract 3000 a game maybe even more if say a father decided to go to a match and take the kids while the wife shops in the proposed shopping centre under the stadium or ,anyway it would have been a good forward planning idea but the council’s are too short sited , it also could have been a venue for some smaller outdoor concerts , even community events such as football camps for kids & community games , imagine kids in the area getting the chance to play there and aspire to play for st.pats one day in there local stadium