Asian Cup 2015: Massimo Luongo keeping Indonesia on edge with exploits for Socceroos

INDONESIA may not have qualified for the Asian Cup but they are still represented. And it’s a descendant of Indonesian royalty. His name is Massimo Luongo.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 09: Massimo Luongo of the Socceroos is congratulated by Tim Cahill and his teammates after scoring a goal during the 2015 Asian Cup match between the Australian Socceroos and Kuwait at AAMI Park on January 9, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

INDONESIA’S appetite for football is voracious and while their national team hasn’t qualified for the Asian Cup, they are still represented.

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It’s no Bali backpacker, rather a descendant of Indonesian royalty.

Massimo Luongo’s name sounds more Italian, that’s because his Indonesian mother fell in love with an Italian immigrant in Australia.

Their youngest offspring is emerging as the pin-up boy in a football-mad nation of 250 million, that is beaming every Asian Cup game live despite Indonesia’s failure to qualify.

While Tim Cahill’s profile is in a league of its own, Belgian-based keeper Mat Ryan (44,700) is the only other Socceroo withe more Twitter followers than Luongo.

While he plays in the unfashionable English third tier, most of Luongo’s 40,000 Twitter followers come from Indonesia.

“When I first signed with Tottenham it came out that I had Indonesian heritage and it went nuts from there,’’ Luongo said.

“My family is quite spread out, but I’ve got uncles, aunties and cousins in Jakarta.

“They all still support me and they contact mum through Facebook, that’s how they stay in touch.

“She passes on all the messages and everyone’s quite happy for me.’’

LUONGO’S ANCESTRY

Born in 1992, Massimo was the youngest of three kids (he has a sister Angela and a brother Christiano), and they knew they had a unique family history.

“My grandad was a Sultan, so they were royalty before the Government took over in Indonesia,’’ he said.

“There is an emotional attachment to Indonesia. I’ve never been there but I would love to visit.’’

Luongo can claim to have the coolest ancestors. His late grandfather AA Siradjuddin was Sultan of Bima and Dompu, based on Sumbawa island, which is still owned by relatives.

Massimo’s great grandfather was a high court judge in Jakarata, after becoming Indonesia’s first Consul General in Turkey.

A bit like Luongo’s football career, his parents’ union in the 1980s was something of a fairytale.

Mario was a suave Italian chef and Ira was a pretty, young economic masters student from Indonesia.

After a chance meeting in a Bondi restaurant, they married within three years and Ira’s plans to return to Indonesia were put on hold.

Massimo Luongo takes on South Korea’s Park Joo Ho.

OBSESSED WITH FOOTBALL

Now with Swindon Town, it was Luongo’s 2011 move to English giants Tottenham Hotspur in football mad Indonesia when his profile exploded.

“In 2011 when I went back and one day my friend rang and asked, ‘is your son’s name Massimo’, I said ‘yes’, they said ‘he’s in the paper’,’’ Ira said.

Unwanted by Australian clubs and youth teams, Luongo was confused in 2011 as he got more love abroad.

He trained with Italians Ascoli (his dad’s town), before settling in London.

That’s when his profile exploded in Indonesia, with Spurs pushing him to switch allegiance.

“Tottenham were pushing Italy to come and have a look at me for a while,’’ Luongo said.

“I probably wasn’t good enough for Italy anyway.

“When I got rejected from the Under 20 World Cup in 2011, I gave up on the Australian national team and focused on my club career.’’

Massimo Luongo surges clear of the South Korea defence.

Indonesia never approached Luongo, but he may have joined former Adelaide United and Brisbane Roar striker Sergio van Dijk as a defector if Ange Postecoglou’s revolution didn’t happen.

Dutch-born van Dijk’s popularity (246,000 Twitter followers) epitomises Indonesia’s obsession with the code, but pales in comparison to other icons.

Bambang Pamungkas (4.95 million Twitter followers) and Irfan Bachdim (4.41 million) are huge, with the latter getting requests from English Premier League players for retweets.

Unknown in his home country, recently retired Robbie Gaspar is Australia’s highest profile football identity in Indonesia.

An advisor to the world players’ union FIFPro, Gaspar has over 86,000 Twitter followers from his 10-year career in Indonesia.

“Massimo’s got endless amounts of potential there, if he’s not a star there now, he will be soon,’’ Gaspar said.

“They love their football, he’s part Indonesian, he’s playing in Europe and he’s humble.

“Players like Massimo give Indonesian players hope they can make it in Europe.’’

Massimo Luongo has helped Swindon to the top of League One in England.

HIS PATH TO THE SOCCEROOS

Luongo wasn’t on the radar under Holger Osieck, which was the case in his junior days.

After playing a handful of games for state league club Sydney Olympic, Luongo opted to pursue a move abroad.

“I was getting overlooked for NSWIS and state teams, AIS wasn’t realistic,’’ Luongo said.

“When I was 15 and wasn’t getting acknowledged, my agent kept me away from that and said if they don’t want you we’ll do our own thing.

“I had a few A-League youth team trial offers, I don’t know whether they were serious or not. Sydney FC were probably keenest.

“I ended up at Spurs. They qualified for Champions League the year I arrived, and it was hard because they paid big money for midfielders.’’

Having had a breakthrough Asian Cup, Luongo and his third-tier English club’s resolve will be tested in coming months.

Top of League One, Swindon has already rejected a $1.1m offer from Championship side Rotherham last July and several more offers in a similar region are understood to have been tabled in the last week.

Mark Bresciano, who’s won 83 Socceroos caps and played in Italy’s Serie A, predicts a big future for Luongo.

“What I like about him, he has good awareness, he’s got good feet, and I think he can hit a good pass,’’ Bresciano said.

“He’s much better than where he is now, he’s in League One and I don’t think that style suits him, but it doesn’t mean he has to leave the country, I think he could go on and do well in the Premier League.’’

And if his original move to Spurs is anything to go by, we know what that will mean in Indonesia.

THE LUONGO FILE

Born 25th September, 1992

Position: Midfield

Socceroos caps: 8 (1 goal)

Debut: Ecuador, 5th March, 2014

Senior clubs:

Sydney Olympic 2010

Tottenham 2011-13

Ipswich Town (Loan) 2012

Swindon Town (Loan) 2013

Swindon Town 2013-now

SOCCEROOS’ TWITTER FOLLOWERS

1 Tim Cahill 718k

2 Mat Ryan 44.7k

3 Massimo Luongo 40k

4 Jason Davidson 37.7k

5 Tommy Oar 35.3k

6 Mark Milligan 32.8k

7 James Troisi 32.7k

8 Ivan Franjic 32.1k

9 Matthew Spiranovic 30.6k

10 Aziz Behich 6.1k

11 Trent Sainsbury 5.2k

12 Nathan Burns 4.1k

13 Mitch Langerak 2k

14 Terry Antonis 1.9k

Originally published as Asian Cup 2015: Massimo Luongo keeping Indonesia on edge with exploits for Socceroos