Arguably one of the best talents produced by Indonesia in recent years, Egy Maulana Vikri has finally found himself a new club following his release from Slovak top-flight side ViON Zlate Moravce. The Medan-born winger has been snapped up by ambitious Liga 1 Indonesia side Dewa United for the second half of the league campaign.
Unlike many Indonesian footballers, Egy started off his senior career overseas, joining Lecha Gdansk of Poland from 2018 to 2021 where he made a total of 37 league appearances for both the club’s senior team and their reserves, scoring 17 times for the latter.
Egy then moved to Slovakia in late August 2021, joining FK Senica. There Egy made 20 appearances in the Slovak top-flight, even linking up with his fellow Indonesian Witan Sulaeman who was loaned out there by Lechia. However, Egy left Senica alongside Witan and several other players at the end of the 2021/22 campaign due to the club’s precarious financial state.
Zlate Moravce was Egy’s next stop and he was used quite sparingly there, only making six league appearances. He only scored one goal and it was during the Tipsport liga winter tournament that was played during the World Cup, with an injury that he had received with the Indonesia U-23 national team in the 2021 SEA Games hindering his potential at Zlate Moravce. Both Egy and Zlate Moravce decided that it was best for them to part ways and the former made his way back to Indonesia, joining a Dewa United side oozing ambition in their battle against relegation.
The Tangsel Warriors had been using the mid-season transfer window very wisely to reinforce their squad. Retaining their foreign contingent – a rarity for Indonesian clubs at this stage of the competition – Dewa United instead parted ways with head coach Nil Maizar, before bringing in a marquee signing as his replacement in the form of Dutch tactician Jan Olde Riekerink, who has experience managing in the top-flights of Europe with Galatasaray and Heerenveen, working alongside the likes of Wesley Sneijder, Lukas Podolski, Nigel de Jong, Burak Yilmaz and Hamit Altintop at the former.
After previously bringing in Persipura Jayapura’s rising star Ramai Rumakiek on loan, Dewa United CEO Ardian Satya Nugraha told CNN Indonesia that the arrivals of both Egy and Ramai were part of the club’s ambitions of creating a solid team to survive the second half of the season.
“Of course we are very pleased with Egy’s arrival. He’s one of the best players in Indonesia,” said Ardian, “We’ve been communicating intensely with him after his departure from Zlate Moravce and Egy’s more than willing to join this team.”
Ardian also added that Dewa United won’t impede on Egy’s dreams of playing abroad and should any teams from outside Indonesia are interested in using his service, the Tangsel Warriors will do their best to accommodate it.
When asked why he chose to return back to Indonesia with Dewa United, Egy told Onefootball that it was for him to gain valuable playing minutes, something that he didn’t exactly get while he was at Europe.
“First and foremost I joined Dewa United so that I could get plenty of playing time,” Egy said, as quoted from Dewa United’s official YouTube channel, “I didn’t get to play that much throughout my five years in Europe, plus my injury that I got from national team duty at the SEA Games has hindered my progression, so I do really need those valuable minutes.”