That's weird. The expulsion of the Dutch and the Dutch-Indo and Moluccans took place in the 1950-1960 timespan. Suppose a baby was born there in 1960 and repatriated to the Netherlands, that person now is 64. A grandchild of that person is too old for professional football.
Also I would assume that there is still that connection to Netherlands. If an Indonesian is going to live in Europe, Netherlands would probably be a likely choice. You'd know better than me, google says there's about 500,000 first generation Indonesians currently living Netherlands.
About 350,000, but those are real Indonesians with a real Indonesian passport. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1284963/indonesian-nationals-population-netherlands/ The wave of 1950 til 1960, about 370,000, were never Indonesians, but Dutch. The around 12,000 Moluccans were a special case. These 385,000 are for the most part dead. Those still alive were children, when moving to the Netherlands.
Well, as we speak ...an article about Dutch choosing to play for Indonesia. https://www.ad.nl/nederlands-voetba...oor-indonesie-spelen-grote-ervaring~ae19037a/ FC Twente defender Mees Hilgers too will play for Indonesia: 'Great experience' FC Twente defender Mees Hilgers will play for the national football team of Indonesia in the future. The 23-year-old Hilgers is currently in Jakarta to meet his future teammates, including Maarten Paes, Thom Haye and Calvin Verdonk. Eliano Reijnders (PEC Zwolle) also opts for an international career with Indonesia. Indonesia took Thursday in a World Cup qualifying duel with Saudi Arabia a point (1-1). The group also consists of Japan, Bahrain, Australia and China. "I'm very proud of this moment," Hilgers said on the website of FC Twente. "I don't really know how to describe the feeling. I have Dutch Indo roots and grew up here in the Netherlands with my Indo family. I'm really looking forward to experiencing the adventure and I'm very curious what it's like to be there. It's going to be a great experience." Hilgers played for the Dutch young team almost two years ago, in a friendly game against Belgium. He has been a fixture at FC Twente for years. He is still under contract in Enschede until the summer of 2026.
That's a massive number of real Indonesians. In a soccer first country, a lot of the children of them will grow up playing soccer, lots of opportunities.
I tried to warn people. People thinking Venezuela is an automatic are sadly mistaken. Going to come down to the wire.
You guys see any of Bolivia, Peru, Chile or Paraguay making it to even 19 points? because I sure as hell don't. I calculated this quite a few times and I've got no clue how they could without multiple big upsets. And that's the reason why I'm absolutely convinced Venezuela will qualify. Not by being great, just by not being awful. I even think that beating Bolivia and Peru at home and avoiding a loss to Paraguay and Chile away could be enough for them. There is an astronomical difference in quality between the "top 5" (including Brazil here despite the standing) and the rest right now and it explains why so few points could be enough.
Calculations months in advance mean nothing to me. Lots of things can happen between now and November 2025. Now as I said before they can make it, I just do not think they are shoo-ins.
I think Bolivia can do it. I haven't seen them play that well in a long time, their performance had everything including - crucially - clinical finishing: they were ruthless. I'd go as far to say - based on that complete performance against Venezuela - they're a team which would have a 50-50 chance of reaching the knockout stage in the new 48-team format.
How quick do you guys breed? A grandchild of that person over here is probably too young for professional football.
Bro, Bolivia can't cross the half-line against any semi-decent team when they play outside home. As far as I know the world cup will be played in North America.
I'm afraid a single game can't serve as serious measuring stick. Especially if that game was played on altitude. I didn't watch the game but I'd be surprised if they are now all off a sudden much better than last year or better than they were at the Copa America. With Bolivia there's lacking the foundation. The FA is poorly funded, poorly run and highly unprofessional. They can't even provide the NT with solid training grounds. They are in too many areas so far behind that it makes it very tough to compete on the pitch.
Yeah Indonesia would not count as debutants. As far as I'm concerned the top 3 prospects for an Asian debutant are 1) Uzbekistan 2) Jordan 3) Bahrain In that order. These nations were also listed by me when I created this thread. Just see the poll on the head of this thread. Uzbekistan and Bahrain had a good start. Jordan dropped points to Kuwait at home. But round 3 is a marathon and single results don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. So there's still all to play for.
I'd maybe consider Oman in there, but they have a very difficult start, away to Jordan + then home to South Korea. It's possible they start with 0 points from 2 matches and it can be difficult to recover from that as an underdog. I also would sort of consider Indonesia a debutant* maybe with an asterix. But it would be the first time they'd qualify as an independent nation.
FT 🇺🇦 Ukraine 1-2 🇦🇱 Albania🇦🇱 Albania played a marvellous game. Compact, excellent midfield press, lethal on the break, dangerous on set pieces, overall super high energy levelsThis Albanian side under Sylvinho have come a long wayThey can make the 2026 World Cup#UKRALB— International Football Guru SK ⚽🇩🇪🗺️ (@sk_football1907) September 7, 2024 Albania has to be surely at this point the most hopeful debutant from UEFA for 2026 Moreover they should be genuinely in your consideration if you're looking for a left field pick. We just beat Ukraine 2-1 in Prague in the Nations League in an encounter that was played at high intensity and at a high level. I'm proud of my boys and the direction the team goes under Sylvinho. We have moved away from bunker ball and play proactively. While we are not a possession based side we press very well and use counter attacks very effectively. That is for me also sort of proactive football. Sylvinho has taken us to te next level. And I'm very excited to see where our journey goes and what the future holds in the stock for us.....
Yes Albania are a very decent side. They werent bad at the Euros either and have players in Italy. The problem for Those teams are the draw. They Can get a very bad draw, and then its over. So they have to hope for a decent draw, and not getting group with 2 Big teams
The Albanians have certainly helped the Swiss team. I wonder if there are many Swiss Albanians who would rep Albania instead ? Or is that not a thing ?
That works only if you count invitees/walkovers. Dutch East Indies (INH) played zero qualifiers towards its one and only men's WC participation. FIFA basically extended a 1938 WC invite to that European colony by stacking qualifying matches in its favor: 1) Asian qualifiers: JPN withdrew after FIFA ordered qualifiers to be held in another European colony. INH got a walkover. 2) Intercontinental play-off: INH vs USA. USA withdrew. FIFA ordered qualifiers to be held in Netherlands. INH got a double-walkover. For context, note that 1938 WC had walkovers on multiple territories: - South America: BRA walked over (ARG withdrew). - North America: USA walked over (MEX withdrew). - Central America + Caribbean: CUB walked over (COL, CRC, SLV, and NGY all withdrew). - Eastern Europe + Africa: ROU walked over (EGY withdrew). - Intercontinental playoffs: CUB got 2nd walkover (ARG withdrew); INH got 2nd walkover (USA withdrew). Both CUB and IND remain as the only teams who participated in men's WC, without ever qualifying: both walked over twice into 1938 WC.
I suppose all of the 13 teams which participated in the 1930 WC also didn't qualify because FIFA didn't hold a preliminary competition that year.
Quite a few Swiss-Albanians, developed in Switzerland, have represented Albania. Kosovo too. For example, Granit Xhaka’s brother - Taulent Xhaka. They even played against each other at the 2016 Euro.