Jakarta –
Coach Persebaya Surabaya Aji Santoso spoke about leaving Taisei Marukawa and Samsul Arif. The two mainstay players pulled out even though they had been offered a salary increase.
Marukawa was announced to move to PSIS Semarang on Friday (1/4/2022), or just a day after the end of the 2021 BRI Liga 1 on Thursday (31/3). A week later, it was Samsul Arif’s turn who was announced to leave the club on Thursday (7/4).
Departure Taisei Marukawa and Samsul Arif became a big loss for Persebaya. Understandably both are pillar players who contribute to Persebaya.
Marukawa was selected as the best player in Liga 1 thanks to 17 goals and 10 assists. Meanwhile, Samsul Arif is still on fire by contributing 11 goals despite being 37 years old.
Various attempts have been made Persebaya so that they both survive in Surabaya. But both players finally decided to withdraw.
“I need to convey this, so that the public knows. Because it seems as if the administrators didn’t seem to have done anything. Marukawa, a few months before the competition was over, the President (Azrul Ananda) had conveyed asking him to be arrested, meaning that there was an intention to keep him. ” say Aji Santoso openly in an official club interview.
“He always said he wanted to focus on finishing the competition. When he finished, he (Marukawa) didn’t want to issue a number, we ended up increasing his salary by 500 percent. But he still didn’t issue a number and finally moved to Semarang,” he said.
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Greetings one guts!
🐊🦈💚#Persebaya pic.twitter.com/32FPw6OtbT— Official Persebaya (@persebayaupdate) April 8, 2022
Unlike Marukawa, Samsul Arif have submitted a salary increase to management Persebaya. Both parties reached an agreement and Samsul Arif just signed a new contract.
But in the end, the former Persela Lamongan attacker changed his mind. Although his request was granted by the club, the aging striker finally decided not to continue.
“When the competition had 3-4 games left, we called him. Negotiations were carried out, from the initial price to the final price that Samsul Arif asked for, we have all agreed,” said Aji Santoso.
“Ask for a certain amount of down payment, we give. It’s just a technical payment problem. He even asked for a house to be rented out, he was given it too,” he said.
“It’s okay verbally, but he hasn’t signed yet. Then finally he came home, when he got home, a few days maybe he had a better offer, so he finally left Persebaya,” he said again.
Marukawa and Samsul Arif be part of the exodus of players leaving Persebaya. There are also Ricky Kambuaya and Rachmat Irianto who docked to Persib Bandung.
Foreign defender Alie Sesay has also left, so Persebaya has no remaining foreign players for releasing Arsenio Valpoort. Alie Sesay’s departure was also followed by Ady Setiawan and Reva Adi Utama.
(aff / krs)
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