Indonesian U-20 national team coach Nova Arianto wants to lead this team to follow in the footsteps of the Indonesian U-17 national team he previously coached, namely qualifying for the World Cup.
Previously, Nova led the U-17 national team to qualify for the 2025 U-17 World Cup in Qatar, after he led his team to qualify for the knockout stages of the U-17 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia that same year.
"The Technical Directorate and the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) have certainly set a target. We hope to qualify for the Asian Cup and then the World Cup. It's certainly not an easy task. I'm still very new and don't know many of the players yet, but I still have six months to prepare," Nova said at the GBK Arena in Jakarta on Thursday.
The U-20 World Cup will be held in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan in 2027. To participate in the 23rd edition of the World Cup, the U-20 national team must first qualify for the 2027 AFC U-20 Cup.
After qualifying for the 2027 U-20 Asian Cup, they need to advance to at least the semifinals to get an automatic ticket to the 2027 U-20 World Cup.
"Hopefully, our preparations will yield results similar to those of the U-17 national team. That's our focus. After this, we will immediately submit a road map to the PSSI. Hopefully, we can prepare well and achieve that target," he said.
