Officially an Indonesian Citizen, Ole Romeny is Overshadowed by High Expectations for the Indonesian National Team

At the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in London, England, on Saturday (8/2/2025), Oxford United winger Ole Romeny took the oath as an Indonesian citizen. After obtaining an identity card (KTP) and a passport bearing the Garuda emblem, Ole carries great hopes of leading the Indonesian national team to the 2026 World Cup.

Ole required less than three months to complete the citizenship transfer process since starting the naturalization process last November. He could be naturalized due to the history of his maternal grandmother, Helene Wilhemina Romenij, who was born in Medan, North Sumatra, on April 2, 1923.

Grandma Ole is included in the category of blijvers or Dutch people who were born and settled in Indonesia before independence. Before Ole, Maarten Paes also had blijvers blood from his grandmother who was born in Kediri, East Java.

In the process of joining the Indonesian national team, Romeny also moved from Utrecht to Oxford United, which is partly owned by the Chairman of PSSI, Erick Thohir.

In addition to Ole, two prospective players for the Indonesian U-20 team, namely Tim Geypens and Dion Markx, also took the oath as Indonesian citizens in London. Tim and Dion were willing to go to London to align with Ole's career location in England.

Ole is expected to be the solution to the lack of finishing touches by the "Garuda" squad in the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. From the six matches played in Group C, Indonesia has only scored six goals, which means an average of just one goal per game.

Two attacking players, namely Ragnar Oratmangoen and Rafael Struick, have each scored a goal. However, the lack of goals could dash Indonesia's hopes of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.

The presence of Ole is expected to be a solution for improving the sharpness of the Garuda squad to face the remaining four games against Australia, Bahrain, China, and Japan. Referring to the performances of Ragnar and Rafael at their clubs, these two players have not yet provided a guarantee of being the spearhead and reliable source of goals.

"Hopefully, Ole Romeny's presence can make the Garuda squad's striking power even sharper. He is expected to have a positive impact on the Indonesian national team," said Erick in a press statement, Saturday night.

Ragnar, for example, has yet to show a sharp performance at the Belgian club, FCV Dender, which is also owned by Indonesian businessman Sihar Sitorus. Although he has played in 14 games, seven of which were as a starter, Ragnar has only played for an average of 49 minutes. He has only scored one goal.

At Brisbane Roar, owned by the Bakrie Group, Rafael has also not shown significant performance improvements. Rafael's playing record also only averages 27 minutes per game from nine appearances.

He even only warmed the bench in Brisbane's last four games. Similar to Ragnar, Rafael has also only scored one goal for Brisbane in the Australian League. Until the middle of the 2024-2025 season, Brisbane still sits in last place in the Australian League.

Ole has the opportunity to play with Ragnar and Rafael in the attacking trident tactic that Indonesian Coach Patrick Kluivert is likely to use. Although they will appear together, the spotlight will be more on the 24-year-old player.

Because, Ole is the Garuda squad striker with the highest market value, which is 1.3 million euros (Rp 21.89 billion). Based on the Transfermarkt page, Ole is the player with the seventh highest market value for Indonesia. He is only behind Mees Hilgers, Kevin Diks, Jay Idzes, Calvin Verdonk, Maarten Paes, and Thom Haye.

Meanwhile, Ragnar has a market value of 600,000 euros (Rp 10.1 billion), while Rafael only recorded a market value of 200,000 euros (Rp 3.36 billion). Rafael's market value is even lower than Indonesian strikers who have careers in BRI Liga 1 2024-2025, such as Yakob Sayuri, Egy Maulana Vikri, Ramadhan Sananta, Malik Risaldi, and Dimas Drajad.

With the lack of strikers who have the potential to compete at the Asian level, even the world, Ole will undoubtedly be a mainstay starting from the Indonesia vs Australia game, March 20, in Sydney, Australia. Five days later, the 24-year-old player will have the opportunity to make his debut at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium, Jakarta, against Bahrain.

However, the high hopes that surround Ole are not accompanied by an impressive collection of statistics. That is at least based on his performance since joining Oxford.

Ole has only been trusted by Oxford Manager Gary Rowett three times in the second tier of English competition, the 2024-2025 Championship League. He played 11 minutes in matches against Stoke and Bristol City, then only appeared for three minutes when Oxford lost 0-1 to Burnley.

With an average of just eight minutes per game, Ole has yet to make a significant impact for Oxford. His role as a forward has only been seen once against Stoke. Ole fired a shot from inside the penalty box that hit the crossbar.

In addition, Ole also still has a very minimal role in his team's game. He only collects an average of 5.3 touches per game. His passing accuracy is very low (33 percent). Ole has only collected one successful dribble while wearing the Oxford uniform.

Despite not finding his best touch with Oxford, Ole actually had a good record in the first half of this season with Utrecht in the Dutch League. He left his homeland with 13 appearances with Utrecht and a collection of 56 minutes per game.

Playing as a right winger, Ole provided two goals for Utrect. The two goals were scored in each of the first two games of the season.

Ole scored the only goal for Utrecht in their 1-0 win over Zwolle in their opening game of the 2024-2025 season. He then scored the goal that helped his team hold Heerenven to a 1-1 draw.

He also created six chances and made five successful dribbles. In a defensive role, Ole was also sufficient for Utrecht thanks to a collection of 25 times recovering possession, five times winning possession in the final third of the opponent's defense, and 12 times winning aerial duels.

However, after eight consecutive games appearing as a starter, Ole experienced a decline in performance towards the end of October. After that. He only appeared as a substitute in five games and was an unused reserve player in four other matches until the end of the first round of the Dutch League this season.

With that statistical record, Ole has yet to find his maximum performance which he presented in the period from August to October 2024. In the midst of that condition, Ole actually has great potential to prove his quality with the Garuda squad.

It is not uncommon for players to perform much better and more enthusiastically when wearing their national team uniform. Hopefully Ole falls into that category.