Madura United’s talented young midfielder Syahrian Abimanyu has agreed to join Liga Super Malaysia behemoths Johor Darul Ta’zim for the upcoming 2021 season, as announced by JDT’s social media channels on Wednesday. Abimanyu’s signing was first alluded by JDT club owner Tunku Ismail Idris on Monday, before it was made official on Wednesday with JDT’s official social media posting photos of Abimanyu posing with a JDT scarf at the Gelora Bung Karno in Jakarta.
During Monday’s unveiling of new signing Danial Amier from FELDA United, Tunku Ismail dropped hints about his club’s intention of signing an Indonesian player, sending the media into a frenzy in finding out the player’s identity. With many rumors wondering who’s the Indonesian player that was in JDT’s sights, the club made things official on Wednesday, with the announcement of Abimanyu’s signing.
21-year old Abimanyu had spent his youth career at La Liga side Levante for a year from 2016 to 2017, before making his professional debut in 2018 for Sriwijaya FC, having being recruited by the Laskar Wong Kito during the tail-end of 2017. Making 8 appearances in his tenure for the South Sumatra club, Abimanyu then made a switch to Madura United in 2019, representing the Laskar Sapeh Kerrab 20 times in the Liga 1 Indonesia while at the same time also representing the Indonesia national team in various age-groups.
Abimanyu’s move to JDT was facilitated by his new agency, the Insa Project Global Group. One recognizable player in the Insa Project Global Group’s books is Kiko Insa, the Spanish-Malaysian midfielder who had previously spent time in Indonesia with both Arema FC and Bali United before moving to JDT. Kiko had used his connections with both his agency and JDT to enable Abimanyu to make the switch from Madura United to the Southern Tigers.
Being the first Indonesian to don the JDT jersey, Abimanyu is the club’s second Southeast Asian signing after JDT’s massive rebrand in 2013, following club captain Hariss Harun of Singapore. Considering the JDT first team playing in the Liga Super is already stacked with talented players and with the club having huge plans for Abimanyu in the future, it seems that the 21-year old would be joining JDT’s reserve team Johor Darul Ta’zim II in the Liga Premier Malaysia. However, Tunku Ismail squashed those claims, announcing through a reply on a post announcing Abimanyu’s signing on Instagram that he intends to loan him out to a foreign club for the 2021 season.
With Hariss now in his 30s and still going strong for the JDT first team, the move to recruit Abimanyu is seen as a long-term investment from JDT, who’s anticipating Hariss’ inevitable decline in two, three, or even four years time. The decision to send Abimanyu out on loan immediately was seen as a move to enable Abimanyu to continue his development as a player while at the same time getting him acclimatized with the culture at JDT, so that when his bow with the first team comes, Abimanyu would already be molded into a player suit for the JDT way.
Abimanyu’s signing made him the second Indonesian player to have made the switch to Malaysia for the upcoming 2021 season, with newly-promoted Penang FC having signed Persija Jakarta’s Ryuji Utomo on loan earlier this month.