The Sampdoria Story: Indonesia’s Italian Job

Published on: 04 August 2017

Kuala Lumpur: It all began in Jakarta 25 years ago. A meeting between prominent Indonesian businessman Aburizal Bakrie and Italian counterpart Enrico Ercolani resulted in one of the most unlikely stories in the continent’s footballing history.

With heavy links to Italian giants Sampdoria, Ercolani returned home to inform club president Paolo Mantovani of Indonesia’s desire to learn, in some way, from Italy’s football culture in order to develop into a side able to challenge for a place at the 1996 Olympic Games.

Sampdoria’s rise


Former Sampdoria owner Paolo Mantovani

After making his fortune in the oil industry, Paolo Mantovani acquired Sampdoria in 1979. The Genoa-based side rose from the second-tier to the top division within three years, before going on to claim the Serie A league championship, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and a host of other major titles.

Ronald Koeman’s extra-time winner saw Sampdoria defeated by Barcelona in the 1992 European Cup final but, make no mistake, La Samp â€“ with stars iike Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini and Attilio Lombardo – were giants of the game in the 80s and early 90s.

Laying the foundations

A year prior to Mantovani’s death in 1993, close friend Ercolani visited Southeast Asia to meet with Bakrie, who was heavily involved in Indonesian football. Little did the pair know at the time that a shared passion for the game would result in a unique opportunity for Indonesia.

“When my father was still alive, Enrico Ercolani, who worked in the oil industry like my family used to, was in Indonesia for a meeting with Mr. Bakrie,” explained Mantovani’s son Enrico Mantovani, who took over the Sampdoria presidency upon his father’s passing.


Enrico Mantovani

“During a break they started talking about football, and Mr. Bakrie asked Ercolani if he had any contacts within Italian football.

“Enrico called my father to ask of the chance of opening a communication channel, explaining that Mr. Bakrie’s dream was to send an Indonesian youth team to train in Italy to help them become competitive in time for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.”

The unexpected invite

What followed surpassed Bakrie’s wildest dreams as Mantovani then discussed with Italian football officials the possibility of an Indonesia youth team competing in the country’s league system.

The response was overwhelmingly positive as the Italian Football Federation saw Indonesia, with its population of well over 200 million people, as a nation that also offered huge media potential for the Italian game.

Enrico Ercolani with Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto

“Together they planned a project to add Indonesia’s U-19 team to the Campionato Primavera (the youth league for north-western Italian sides) as guests,” added Mantovani. “This meant they would play clubs such as Juventus, Parma, Torino and Bologna.”

The condition of the young Garuda’s season in Italy was that they would affectively be an extra in the league, with no points on offer from their matches and ultimately no place in the standings.

A year to remember

And so it was, for the 1994-95 season, Indonesia’s U-19 team headed west to Italy, where they would be managed, upon Sampdoria’s advice, by Romano Matte, who had spent the majority of his coaching days in Italy’s lower leagues.

The Indonesia U-19 side in Italy.

The youngsters held their own, winning seven and drawing eight of their 26 matches as the unlikely opportunity proved a resounding success both on and off the pitch. All of the Garuda’s games were recorded and sent back to Indonesia, where they were broadcasted to 12 million people.

Upon conclusion of the season the team returned home to take part in the Olympic Games qualifying tournament but, under the guidance of Matte – who would later manage Indonesia’s senior team – failed to advance.

Nevertheless, a strong relationship was forged between the Indonesian Football Federation and Sampdoria, and the Italian outfit travelled to the island nation to play a friendly in front of 110,000 spectators at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.


The Sampdoria team in Indonesia.

Promising trio return

The links didn’t end there, though, as Indonesia would benefit further from their Italian connection. The following season Sampdoria brought the trio of goalkeeper Kurnia Sandy, midfielder Bima Sakti and striker Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto to Italy to team up with their own Campionato Primavera side.

“At the beginning of the 1996-97 season we had to decide our third-choice goalkeeper behind [Fabrizio] Ferron and [Matteo] Sereni,” recalled Mantovani. “I decided to speak with our goalkeeper coach, Pietro Battara, and I told him that I would be very happy if he could choose Kurnia Sandy because it would send an important message to our Indonesian partners.

“However, I was adamant that he should only be chosen if Pietro judged him to have the right technical skills. I trusted Pietro very much and he assured me that Kurnia Sandy had all the attributes to become Sampdoria’s third-choice goalkeeper, and so the young Indonesian became part of our first team.”

Mixing it with the big guns

Having played with the Indonesia U-19 side when they competed in Italy, Kurnia admitted that he missed his family but that it didn’t take too long to adjust to life in Europe.

And after impressing in the friendly between the Garuda and Sampdoria, the custodian was ready to return to the other side of the world for his shot at the big time.

“Pietro Battara wanted me to become the third-choice goalkeeper for Sampdoria after I played well for the national team in the friendly match against them,” explained Kurnia. “We won and I played very well, so I returned to Italy.


Kurnia Sandy playing for Persik Kediri.

“At one point, our first-choice goalkeeper Ferron was injured and Sereni was in the starting 11. I was going to be on the bench but a bureaucratic problem meant I wasn’t allowed to.”

Despite never turning out for the first team, Kurnia returned to Indonesia as a hero a year later, before going on to represent a host of clubs in his homeland and starring as the Garuda’s first-choice ‘keeper from the mid to late-nineties.

A true talent

Kurniawan also departed Sampdoria after a year but the forward chose not to return home, instead moving to Switzerland to spend a season with FC Luzern, where he became the first Indonesian to play, and score, in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

The striker then headed back east and would enjoy a fruitful career in Southeast Asia, starring more than 50 times for his country. But, to this day, Mantovani believes he possessed the talent that could have seen him go further in the game.

“Kurniawan was maybe the strongest player in Indonesia’s history. At the beginning, he did very good things with Sampdoria, but then he had some problems.

“It was a pity because he could have done very, very well if only he had kept doing what he was able to do best.”

After a year in Genoa, meanwhile, Bima returned home too and the midfielder – who also went on to appear more than 50 times for the Garuda – noted that: “The time in Italy was very good for us and gave us a lot of experience for our future careers as footballers”.

End of an era

Ties with Sampdoria were ultimately brought to an end due to the East Asian economic crisis kicking in from mid-1997.

But for the young Garuda side who competed in Italy, and particularly the trio who returned to Genoa, the experience will live long in the memory. 

Photos: Alessandra Albites, Archivio Sampdoria Club, Getty Images

Source: the-afc.com

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