2025-2026 Season: Persita Tangerang Aims to Escape From Its Semenpada Status

TANGERANG, KOMPAS — Persita Tangerang welcomes the BRI Super League 2025-2026 with great optimism. Together with the new tactician Carlos Pena, the "Pendekar Cisadane" aims to rise from their status as a mediocre team, commonly known as a mid-table occupant, in order to climb up and compete for the top positions.

Since the promotion from Liga 2 Indonesia in the 2019 edition, Persita has only managed to conclude a season within the prestigious top 10 once. This moment occurred during their second season competing in the highest tier of the national competition in the 2022-2023 edition. At that time, Persita finished in ninth place with 47 points.

After four seasons competing in Liga 1, the achievements in the 2022-2023 season remain the best record for the team that is identified by its purple-colored uniform. In the other three seasons, Persita ranked 12th in 2021-2022, then 14th in 2023-2024, and in the 2024-2025 season, it was in 11th place.

Persita has contracted Pena, who managed Persija Jakarta until the 30th week last season, in order to achieve better results in this season's BRI Super League. The experience of the Spanish tactician, who led his team to compete at the top, serves as a valuable asset.

Persija, along with Pena, had been competing for a position in the top four zone. Previously, Pena led Ratchaburi FC to secure the sixth position in the 2023-2024 edition of the Thai League.

President of Persita Ahmed Zaki Iskandar stated that the appointment of Pena to continue the succession in the head coach position is based on his extensive experience. Furthermore, Zaki mentioned that Pena is already familiar with the club and the players competing in the Indonesian League.

"We hope that together with Carlos Pena, Persita can perform better in the upcoming season with a chance to finish in the top three, or even as champions," said Zaki during the launch of the Persita squad for 2025-2026 at the Indomilk Arena Stadium Complex, Tangerang, Banten, Sunday (27/7/2025).

Persita is different from the majority of Super League teams that have overhauled most of their foreign player lineup. The Cisadane Warriors continue to retain five indispensable foreign pillars from last season.

The best goalkeeper of Liga 1 Indonesia 2024-2025, Igor Rodrigues, was able to be retained despite several Indonesian clubs attempting to entice him to leave Tangerang. The central defensive duo, Javlon Guseynov and Tamirlan Kozubaev, continue to be reliable mainstays at the heart of the defense.

Bae Sin-yeong will embark on his fifth season wearing the Pendekar Cisadane jersey. Undoubtedly, the energetic midfielder from South Korea has become the most loyal foreign player to a single club in the 2025-2026 Super League.

In the attacking line, Pena focused the game through the impressive abilities of winger Eber Bessa. Joining in the second half of last season, Bessa contributed eight goals to Persita.

The five foreign players are reinforced by three new import mainstays. They are Pablo Ganet (midfielder/Equatorial Guinea), Rayco Rodriguez (wing forward/Spain), and Matheus Alves (center forward/Brazil).

Regardless of the presence of foreign players, Persita continues to uphold the tradition of relying on young players nurtured by the club through the Elite Pro Academy (EPA) competition. A total of 15 local players born after January 1, 2000, have been included in the team.

Players born in the new millennium have proven to be the backbone of Pendekar Cisadane in the last season. Mario Jardel, Jack Brown, Yardan Yafi, and Esal Sahrul are players born in the 2000s who have become synonymous with Persita.

The presence of several young players indeed means that Persita does not have a luxurious squad. Referring to Transfermarkt, Persita has a cumulative market value of the squad amounting to Rp 1.98 billion. This figure places the Pendekar Cisadane squad in 13th position on the squad value list ahead of the BRI Super League 2025-2026.

Two promotion teams have a squad value higher than Persita. They are PSIM Yogyakarta with IDR 2.54 billion, followed by Bhayangkara Presisi Lampung with a squad valued at IDR 2.14 billion.

Pena emphasizes that the fighting spirit and hard work will serve as the foundation for his protégés to elevate Persita's status this season. He is confident that the players of Pendekar Cisadane have the potential to bring pride to all supporters.

"We want to be a team that delivers the best performance until the very end. We will play as a team that is unwilling to give up in every match," said Pena.

In the opening match of the 2025-2026 Super League, Persita will play an away game against Persija at the Jakarta International Stadium (JIS) on Sunday (10/8/2025).

The match also served as a reunion for Pena, who concluded his service to Persija with a 0-2 defeat against Semen Padang at JIS on April 27.