Wimbo Satwiko

Mustafic Fahrudin, left, is the latest Singaporean player to join the Indonesian Super League. (Photo: EPA)

Fahrudin Joins in Singapore-Indonesia Football Exodus

The migration of talent to the Indonesian Super League from Singapore continued in earnest on Saturday.

Persija Jakarta made good on its plans to add Singapore international midfielder Mustafic Fahrudin to its squad. The Serbia-born player joins international teammates Noh Alam Shah and Precious Emuejeraye in making the move to Indonesia.

“I have finally signed with Persija. We’ve been talking for almost a month,” Fahrudin said on Saturday. “I arrived in Jakarta on Saturday morning, and I finalized my contract. I am looking forward to playing my home games in front of thousands of Persija fans.”

Fahrudin’s signing ended speculation that he would join Tampines Rover teammate Alam Shah at Arema Malang.

Arema officials had earlier claimed the naturalized Singaporean had a “gentlemen’s agreement” with the club, but Fahrudin dismissed those claims and said Persija was the only club to contact him.

“I never talked with any official from Arema. The only person from Arema that I talked to was Alam Shah,” the 28-year-old said. “I didn’t want to start talking with any other clubs before Persija, and I wanted to be fair to them. There’s no point talking about Arema now.”

Fahrudin is scheduled to join the Kemayoran Tigers on Sept. 25. He originally expressed a desire to remain at Tampines until his contract expired in December, but he said Tampines agreed to release him from his contract.

Having secured the services of one Singapore international, Persija assistant manager Ferry Indrasjarief said defender Baihakki Khaizan could be the next player to leave the S-League for Indonesia.

“We’re just waiting for [Khaizan] to come to Jakarta in order to finalize his contract,” Ferry said. “Now, we’re looking for one more imported player.”

Current Indonesia national team coach and Persija technical director Benny Dollo put other contract hopefuls through their paces in tryouts over the weekend and said he liked what he saw.

“The boys showed better teamwork,” the 58-year-old said. “We also tried out Joao Carlos as we still need one more foreigner. I like his style.”

Persija is scheduled to open the new Indonesian Super League season with a match at Arema on Oct. 11. Football

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