The Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas of the Republic of Indonesia, Maruarar Sirait, admitted that the Indonesian U-23 national team should still receive appreciation in the form of a bonus even though they failed to win the ASEAN U-23 Championship after being defeated by the Vietnamese U-23 national team 0-1 in the final match through a goal by Nguyen Cong Phuong (37').
After speaking with his son, Yoshua Sirait, the man familiarly known as Ara revealed that the bonus he gave was IDR 100 million for each Garuda Muda player and IDR 300 million for each coach.
"As President Prabowo always says, strive for the best. Earlier, we were talking to my son, Joshua, about how about we also pay attention. Even though our national team hasn't been successful, we're giving each player a bonus of 100 million rupiah, and each coach 300 million rupiah," Ara said when met by media crews after the match at SUGBK, Tuesday.
The man, who is also the Chairman of the Steering Committee (SC) for the 2025 President's Cup pre-season tournament, said the bonus of hundreds of millions of rupiah came from his personal funds.
"Yes, the money is my own. So I'm very proud of what they've achieved, and we're getting back on our feet. We're together, and you're not alone. I support you wholeheartedly," said the 55-year-old.
