Kim Jeffrey Kurniawan (born 23 March 1990) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Liga 1 club

PSS Sleman Perserikatan Sepakbola Sleman ( 'Sleman Football Union'), or mostly known through its abbreviation PSS, is a professional football club based in Sleman Regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The club competes in the Liga 1 , the top ...

. Born in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, he represented

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

at international level.

Personal life

Kim Kurniawan was born in Germany to a German mother and an Indonesian father who has Chinese lineage. His paternal grandfather, Kwee Hong Sing, was an Indonesian footballer who played for

Persija Jakarta Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jakarta ( 'Indonesian Football Association of Jakarta'; abbreviated as Persija), is an Indonesian professional football club based in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta. Persija Jakarta is one of the most suc ...

and the Indonesia national team in the 1950s. Born with German nationality, Kurniawan decided to take up Indonesian citizenship after the

PSSI The Football Association of Indonesia ( id, Persatuan Sepakbola Seluruh Indonesia; 'All-Indonesian Football Association'; abbreviated as PSSI) is the governing body of football in Indonesia. It was founded on 19 April 1930, fifteen years before ...

, the football association of Indonesia, offered him a naturalization path that could pave way for him to win a position on the national team. In December 2010, he officially received an

Indonesian passport An Indonesian passport is a travel document issued by the Government of Indonesia to Indonesian citizens residing in Indonesia or overseas. The main governing body with regards to the issuance of such passport(s), possession(s), withdrawal and re ...

and, after

Cristian Gonzáles Cristian Gérard Alfaro Gonzáles (born 30 August 1976, also known as Mustafa Habibi) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Liga 2 club PSIM Yogyakarta. He has been 4 times Liga Indonesia top scorer and has scored 249 goals ...

, became the second

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

football player in that country; Gonzáles had done so in November 2010. Kurniawan's sister, Jennifer Kurniawan, is married to

Irfan Bachdim Irfan Haarys Bachdim (born 11 August 1988) is an Indonesian professional footballer who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for Liga 1 club Persis Solo. Early life Irfan father, Noval, is an Indonesian national of Arab descent born in ...

, an Indonesian football player who was born and bred in the Netherlands. Bachdim and Kurniawan, who are both playing for PSS Sleman, came to Indonesia at the same time in 2010 and became teammates at

Persema Malang Persema, an acronym for Persatuan Sepakbola Malang is an Indonesian football club based in Malang, East Java. They currently compete in the Liga 3. History The club was officially established in 1953, with primary funding from Malang's muni ...

in 2011.

Early career

Karlsruher SC

After training at a soccer school in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, Kurniawan, then age 6, was recruited by German club

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

when it was still playing in the top-flight

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. He stayed there for 12 years, participating in youth games against international clubs such as

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...

, FC Valencia and other German clubs like

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

and

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

. However, Kurniawan suffered a

knee injury In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

at 18 in his last junior season, ruining his dream to play high-level professional football in Germany.

Club career

FC 07 Heidelsheim

His knee injury kept him away from the ball for the better part of a year. Eventually, Kurniawan joined FC 07 Heidelsheim which played in the

Verbandsliga The Verbandsliga ( en, Football Association League) is usually a tier-six football league in the German football league system, covering the area of a '' Bundesland'' or a regional part of such Bundesland.contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

but this changed after he received an invitation to play in Indonesia with a possibility to play for the national team of his father's country.

Persema Malang

Kurniawan went to Indonesia in 2010 with two other Europe-based footballers of Indonesian descent,

and Alessandro Trabucco. His career there started with an invitation to charity games in

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...

cities of

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

and

Malang Malang (; ) is a landlocked List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of East Java. It has a history dating back to the age of Singhasari, Singhasari Kingdom. It is the second most popul ...

in 2010. After the matches,

Timo Scheunemann Timo Scheunemann (born 29 November 1973) is an Indonesian-German youth football coach and manager. He is also a former professional football forward. He used to play professionally in Indonesia's Liga Indonesia and Singapore's S-League. He al ...

, a German who was coaching top-flight team

contacted Kurniawan and offered him a

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...

, in which the latter impressed. Scheunemann recruited Kurniawan and Bachdim to play in the 2011 season of the breakaway

Indonesian Premier League Indonesian Premier League (IPL; Indonesian: ''Liga Prima Indonesia'') was the highest level competition for football clubs in Indonesia from 2011 to 2013. This competition was managed by ''PT Liga Prima Indonesia Sportindo'', under supervision o ...

, irking the PSSI that later delayed Kurniawan's naturalization process. Without an Indonesian passport at the time, Kurniawan could not play as local player until he officially became Indonesian. An injury also kept him from playing on the national team for the Suzuki AFF Cup 2010. Despite the challenges, Kurniawan signed a contract with

in 2011 and stayed for almost three years. Amid Persema's financial problems in late 2013, Kurniawan tried to play in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

but did not secure a contract despite trials at several clubs.

Pelita Bandung Raya

The failure in Thailand led Kurniawan to look for opportunities in Indonesia again. Kurniawan in December 2013 signed up for

Pelita Bandung Raya Madura United Football Club is an Indonesian professional football club. The club is based in Pamekasan, Madura, East Java. They currently play in the Liga 1. Established on 10 January 2016, Madura United FC is one of few professional clubs ...

that played in

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

in the

Indonesia Super League Liga 1 ( en, League 1), also known as BRI Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons with Bank Rakyat Indonesia, is the men's top professional football division of the Indonesian football league system. Administered by the PT Liga Indonesia Baru (), Liga 1 i ...

. He played for two seasons there under Serbian coach

Dejan Antonic Dejan (Cyrillic: Дејан) is a Serbian names, Serbian masculine given name, derived from the Slavic verb ''dejati'', meaning "to act, to do". The name and the derived surname Dejanović are common among South Slavs. The name is first recorded ...

until the club was sold in late 2015 after going through financial difficulties.

Persib Bandung

Kurniawan in early 2016 joined

Persib Bandung Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Bandung ( 'Indonesian Football Association of Bandung'), commonly referred to as Persib Bandung, or simply Persib, is a professional football club based in Bandung, West Java, which competes in Liga 1, the top ...

after the top club in Bandung hired coach Antonic. During the FIFA one-year suspension on Indonesian football, Kurniawan was part of the Persib team that participated in unauthorized tournaments in his first season, including the

2016 Indonesia Soccer Championship A Indonesia Soccer Championship A, also known as Torabika Soccer Championship presented by IM3 Ooredoo for sponsorship reasons, was a football competition that replaced the temporarily-suspended Indonesia Super League. Persipura won the title on ...

where the club finished fifth and the 2016 Bhayangkara Cup that saw the team went all the way to the final. Kim Jeffrey Kurniawan

Kurniawan's second season saw his team finish 13th in the 2017 Liga 1, the first full-season of top-flight Indonesian football after FIFA lifted the suspension. Unfortunately, injuries affected his career again. He broke his

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

at the end of the season after being tackled by a

player in the traditionally hostile Persija-Persib match. Kurniawan had to sit out most of the

2018 Liga 1 The 2018 Liga 1, also known as Go-Jek Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons, was the second season of Liga 1 under its current name and the ninth season of the top-flight Indonesian professional league for association football clubs since its establishm ...

. During recovery, Kurniawan developed an array of businesses in Bandung, ranging from a clothing line to a barbershop that has gained popularity among fans. Kurniawan's undeterred will to come back from injury in late 2018 that led to a revived performance in the

2019 Liga 1 The 2019 Liga 1, also known as Shopee Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons, was the third season of Liga 1 (Indonesia), Liga 1 under its current name and the 10th season of the top-flight Indonesian professional league for association football clubs sin ...

season, along with a number of goals, and his popular businesses won support from Persib fans who affectionately call him "Little Kimmy". Fans first thought he would retire in Bandung. However, Kurniawan shocked Persib loyalists when he decided to move in February 2021.

PSS Sleman

Kurniawan in early 2021, before the pre-season Piala Menpora tournament, decided to join

. His main reason was to reunite with coach

and brother-in-law

, who both joined the up-and-coming Liga 1 club for the 2020 season that abruptly ended due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic.

International career

Kurniawan came to play in

in 2010 after injuries dashed any hope of getting called by his birth country

. Tempted by the possibility of representing his father's country, he took up the PSSI naturalization offer. In 2011, Kurniawan received the call from the Indonesia national under-23 team to play in the Southeast Asian Games 2011. He trained in several cities, including

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

but did not break into the final squad. In 2015, he was invited to the official

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

friendly games against

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. During the match in

Sidoarjo Sidoarjo Regency ( jv, ꦑꦧꦸꦥꦠꦺꦤ꧀ꦱꦶꦢꦲꦂꦗ, Kabupatèn Sidaharja) is a regency in East Java, Indonesia. It is bordered by Surabaya city and Gresik Regency to the north, by Pasuruan Regency to the south, by Mojokerto Regency ...

on 30 March 2015 against

, Kurniawan was brought on and made his debut for the senior team in a 2-1 win.

Honours

PSS Sleman * Menpora Cup third place:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Individual * Menpora Cup Best Eleven:

Filmography

* '' Tendangan dari Langit'' (2011) * '' Aku Cinta Kamu'' (2014)

References

External links

Kim Kurniawan official website

Interview on career in English
Football Indonesia podcast
Kim Kurniawan
at Soccerway * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kurniawan, Kim 1990 births Living people People from Mühlacker Sportspeople from Karlsruhe (region) Indonesian footballers Indonesia youth international footballers Indonesia international footballers Indonesian people of Chinese descent Indonesian sportspeople of Chinese descent German people of Chinese descent German people of Indonesian descent Indo people Indonesian Christians Naturalised citizens of Indonesia Indonesian Premier League players Liga 1 (Indonesia) players Persema Malang players Pelita Bandung Raya players Persib Bandung players PSS Sleman players Association football midfielders