The Power of Indonesian Football: Turning Unknown Stars into Adored Icons

Maarten Paes is the starting goalkeeper for Major League Soccer team FC Dallas. Yet he can walk down a busy street in Dallas, Texas, and nobody will notice him.

That is not the case online. Or in Indonesia.

Like his teammates in the Indonesia national team, Paes is mobbed when he visits the country and has a huge social media following, far bigger than would be expected of a player yet to trouble football's uppermost echelons.

Paes, 26, was born in the Netherlands but became an Indonesian citizen in April and was shocked by the rapid growth of his socials – he has 1.7million followers on Instagram and 1.2m on TikTok.

"You already know before it happens because you've seen it happen to other players. It's such a huge country and they are all in love with soccer," Paes says.

The 26-year-old knew he was eligible to play for Indonesia for a couple of years but at the end of last year, the team reached out to him again. "At that time, my grandmother was declining in her health," he says.

"She's from there and I spoke with her a lot about it. It was a thing I could do that would make her smile at the end of her life. That was huge for me. She said, 'I would really love if you would do that.' So she encouraged me and it was an honour to do it for her."

After news broke that he was switching to Indonesia, his life changed. "That was when I felt I needed to get a relationship with my social media in a different way, where you can put it away for a while because it can be a little bit overwhelming," he says. "It's surreal that suddenly you're getting adored by so many followers and such big crowds."