Krishna Sadhana
Football Tribe Asia
In a bid to steer their disastrous campaign back on track, reigning Liga 1 champions Persija Jakarta announced the appointment of Brazilian Edson Tavares as their new head coach yesterday. The 63-year old was unveiled at the PSAU Field in Halim Perdanakusuma, East Jakarta, by the Persija management, before he went straight to work right away and oversaw the day’s training program.
“I’m delighted to be a part of Persija,” said Edson during his unveiling, “I hope that I could bring Persija out of the tough situation that they’re in right now, and I hope that I could win many games with them.”
Edson Tavares is a man with many experience in terms of managing football teams. His CV has seen him manage football clubs and national teams in three different continents, his native South America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of teams in Southeast Asia, Edson has managed the Vietnamese national team twice in 1995 and 2004, while in 2009 he took charge of Vietnamese club XM The Vissai Ninh Binh. In the year 2000 he took charge of Guangzhou Apollo, the club that would eventually become Chinese Super League giants Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao, while in 1991 he brought Saudi club Al-Hilal to the pinnacle of glory with the 1991 Asian Club Championship (now the AFC Champons League) title.
Edson’s most recent club was J2 side Yokohama FC, where he had spent two years. Being handed the reins there in 2017, Edson’s Yokohama FC side missed out on promotion in 2018 after being beaten by Tokyo Verdy in the promotion play-offs, before he was replaced by Takahiro Shimotaira in May 2019 after a wretched run of form that saw Yokohama FC winning only 4 of their opening 13 J2 games this season.
Meanwhile Persija are experiencing a torrid season so far. Despite retaining the services of talismanic striker Marko Šimić (who retained his prolific form by scoring 13 times already this season), the 2018 Liga 1 Player of the Season Rohit Chand, as well as mercurial winger Riko Simanjuntak, Macan Kemayoran found themselves 14th in the table, locked in a relegation battle and having flirted with the drop zone repeatedly this season. Edson is the capital side’s third manager this season, after Ivan Kolev and Julio Bañuelos have tried and failed to bring out Persija’s fierceness that has won them the title last season. Edson will be handed a tough job at Persija, with steadying a rocky ship being his main objective.