The Borneo FC Samarinda head coach merry-go-round continues as the Pesut Etam named Dutch tactician Pieter Huistra as their new head coach on Tuesday. The former Indonesia head coach becomes Borneo’s ninth head coach throughout their Liga 1 Indonesia tenure, succeeding former Daegu FC boss Andre Gaspar at the Segiri Stadium hot seat.
Andre, who guided Daegu to the Korean FA Cup back in 2018, left his post at Borneo due to “family reasons,” with the club still hanging around the Liga 1’s top half. The Brazilian’s last match for the Pesut Etam was a comfortable 3-1 win over Persikabo 1973 at the Segiri on February 16th.
With caretaker coach Miftahudin Mukson overseeing a 1-1 draw with 10-men Persita Tangerang on February 20th, Borneo wasted no time in appointing Andre’s successor, with Huistra being lined up to lead Borneo throughout the remainder of the season.
The Borneo job wasn’t Huistra’s first gig in Indonesian football, having overseen the FIFA suspension of Indonesian football back in 2015 as their national team head coach. Huistra has also served as technical director of the Indonesia national team from 2014 to 2015, as well as taking charge of Eredivisie side FC Groningen from 2010 to 2012. Most recently, Huistra was the head coach of Uzbek giants Pakhtakhor Tashkent from 2021 to 2022.
“He understood Indonesian football very well,” said Borneo president Nabil Husein as quoted from Okezone, “We wish him well here at the club.”
Huistra’s appointment meant that Borneo had hired and fired nine head coaches since the inception of the Liga 1 back in 2017. This is also the second season that saw Borneo going through three head coaches in a season, having worked with Milomir Seslija and Andre throughout this season. The first time Borneo went through three head coaches in a season was in the 2021/22 season, with Mario Gomez, Risto Vidakovic, and Fakhri Husaini taking turns in leading the Pesut Etam.