Abhay Singh
FC Dallas, a squad in Major League Soccer, starts goalkeeper Maarten Paes. However, if he strolls along a bustling Dallas, Texas street, no one will see him. Online, that isn’t the case. or in the country of Indonesia. Similar to his teammates on the Indonesian national team, Paes has an enormous social media following—much larger than one might anticipate for a player who hasn’t yet challenged the best in football. He also gets swarmed whenever he visits the nation.
“They are all in love with soccer,”
Born in the Netherlands, Paes, 26, obtained Indonesian citizenship in April and was taken aback by how quickly his social media following grew: he now has 1.2 million TikTok followers and 1.7 million Instagram followers.
Paes said “You already know before it happens because you’ve seen it happen to other players. It’s such a huge country and they are all in love with soccer,”
He was aware that he may play for Indonesia for a few years, but the squad contacted him once again at the conclusion of the previous year.
He said “At that time, my grandmother was declining in her health, She’s from there and I spoke with her a lot about it. It was a thing I could do that would make her smile at the end of her life. That was huge for me. She said, ‘I would really love if you would do that’. So she encouraged me and it was an honour to do it for her.”
He claims that his life changed after his decision, he said “That was when I felt I needed to get a relationship with my social media in a different way, where you can put it away for a while because it can be a little bit overwhelming, It’s surreal that suddenly you’re getting adored by so many followers and such big crowds.”
During the recent break, Paes, who played youth for the Netherlands, made his Indonesian debut in two games. In front of almost 70,000 spectators at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, he claims that the goalless draw against Australia—who was ranked 109 spots higher than Indonesia—was eye-opening.
He stated “It was like for the first time it all hit me, how big it is, You see it on the internet, you see the numbers and you can’t really wrap your head around it. Then we couldn’t leave the hotel without security.”
Indonesian superstar’ arrivals caused Instagram posts of teams to reach new heights
Oxford United and Australian A-League side Brisbane Roar have experienced a significant increase in engagement on social media, with both posting videos to Instagram. Oxford’s video, which typically receives thousands of views, reached 5.2 million views in August, while Brisbane’s video, which typically receives thousands, garnered 4.5 million and 1.7 million views respectively.
This is due to the summer arrival of two Indonesian soccer superstars, in the form of the national team’s youngsters Marselino Ferdinan and Rafael Struick.
The Indonesia impact is this. There are almost 280 million people living in this south-east Asian nation, and football is the most popular sport. Cue online and offline devotion and passion for players on the national squad.
The combined Instagram following of Indonesia’s starting lineup for their World Cup qualifying match against Australia was 26.9 million. The 11 teams they represent have less than 10 million followers on the same app combined.
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