 Kurniawan in 2022 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto | ||
| Date of birth | (1976-07-13)13 July 1976 (age 49) | ||
| Place of birth | Magelang Regency, Indonesia | ||
| Height | 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
| Position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1993 | PSSI Primavera | ||
| 1994 | Sampdoria | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1994–1995 | Sampdoria | 0 | (0) |
| 1994–1996 | →Luzern (loan) | 12 | (3) |
| 1996–1999 | Pelita Jaya | 44 | (38) |
| 1999–2001 | PSM Makassar | 58 | (37) |
| 2001–2003 | PSPS Pekanbaru | 50 | (28) |
| 2003–2004 | Persebaya Surabaya | 28 | (14) |
| 2004–2005 | Persija Jakarta | 18 | (10) |
| 2005–2006 | Sarawak | 31 | (29) |
| 2006–2007 | PSS Sleman | 16 | (11) |
| 2007–2008 | Persitara North Jakarta | 32 | (14) |
| 2008–2009 | Persisam Putra Samarinda | 22 | (10) |
| 2009–2010 | Persela Lamongan | 24 | (7) |
| 2010–2011 | Tangerang Wolves | 16 | (6) |
| 2011–2012 | Pro Duta | 27 | (9) |
| 2012–2013 | Persipon Pontianak | 18 | (9) |
| Total | 396 | (215) | |
| International career | |||
| 1995–2005 | Indonesia | 59 | (33) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2018 | Indonesia(Assistant coach) | ||
| 2019 | Indonesia U23(Assistant coach) | ||
| 2019–2021 | Sabah | ||
| 2022–2025 | Como(Assistant coach) | ||
| 2023 | Indonesia U23(Assistant coach) | ||
| 2025– | Indonesia U20(Attacking coach) | ||
| 2025– | Indonesia(Caretaker assistant coach) | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto (born 13 July 1976) is an Indonesian former professionalfootballer who played as astriker. Kurniawan is the fourth mostcapped players and goalscorer for theIndonesia national team with 33 goals in 59 appearances. Kurniawan got himself a nickname of "Skinny" (Indonesian:Kurus) due to his slender figure.[1] He is currently the attacking coach ofIndonesia U-20 team.
Kurniawan became a household name in Indonesia when he went on a scoring spree for the Indonesian youth team that went toItaly in 1993 to train atSerie A clubU.C. Sampdoria and play in theCampionato Nazionale Primavera, the league for youth teams ofSerie A andSerie B clubs. The Indonesian football associationPSSI sent the team abroad for two years to prepare for the1994 AFC Youth Championship inJakarta and the qualifying round for the1996 Summer Olympics. Kurniawan was so prolific that Sampdoria's coach at that time,Sven-Göran Eriksson, included the 18-year old in the team that toured Asia in 1994, along with superstarsRoberto Mancini andAttilio Lombardo who just won the1993–94 Coppa Italia title.[2][3]
Kurniawan's performance in the Primavera league and with Sampdoria in exhibition matches caught the attention of other European clubs, including Swiss top-tier clubFC Luzern that signed him on loan for the 1994–95 season. Kurniawan scored three goals in his 12 appearances for theLucerne-based club, a respectable result for any teenager with no previous professional career. Kurniawan is the first and only Indonesian national who has scored in a top-flight European league. He was also the only Indonesian who competed at theUEFA Intertoto Cup, which was abolished in 2008. Despite such achievements, young Kurniawan suffered homesickness, culture shock, and injuries inSwitzerland.[4][5]
Sampdoria in 1995 called him back from the loan spell to prepare him for the 1995–96 season ofSerie A but Kurniawan chose to return to Indonesia.[6]
Kurniawan played for 12 teams in Indonesia after his 1995 return, winning the national title withPSM Makassar in 2000 andPersebaya Surabaya in 2004. He scored more than 170 goals for those teams combined. That said, his re-entry to Indonesia was not smooth as defenders brutally targeted the popular striker and the media hounded him as a celebrity. The rough transition during his early 20s led him to intentions of quitting football and a drug scandal that made PSSI suspended him from the national team. Criticism was rife against Kurniawan for his inability to match the quality he showed in Europe. He overcame the challenges and became more stable when he joined PSM in 1999 and won his first team trophy in 2000. He came second on the top scorer list that year below his perennial rival Bambang Pamungkas.[7][8][9]
Despite his popularity coming from his achievements in Europe and Indonesia, he was most prolific when he played inMalaysia forSarawak FA in 2005–06 with 29 goals in 31 appearances. When he joined, Sarawak was playing in theMalaysian Premier League, the second-tier of Malaysian football. His goals helped the club to win promotion and compete in the 2006Malaysian Super League.[10]
Outside his dark years in the late 1990s, Kurniawan has always been the top choice for the youth and senior Indonesian national football teams from 1993 to 2005. With 33 goals in 59 appearances for the senior team, he has collected more caps and goals than any other Indonesian, except Bambang Pamungkas who also played in Malaysia when Kurniawan was there. His first three goals were scored againstCambodia in a 10–0 rout in the1995 Southeast Asian Games inThailand.[11]
After Kurniawan retired as a player in late 2013, he chose to become a coach at the new Chelsea Soccer School Indonesia, which is supported byEnglish Premier League clubChelsea F.C. despite approaches from Indonesian clubs. One reason was the position did not require him to stay in Indonesia for long stretches as he wanted to spend more time in Malaysia, where his Malaysian wife opens a restaurant business. The pressure of training an Indonesian professional team throughout most of the year would take him away for too long.[12]
After approaches by PSSI and national team coaches, Kurniawan agreed to be a part-time assistant coach for Indonesian youth teams, including the U-23 team that won silver at the2019 Southeast Asian Games in thePhilippines.
Newly promotedMalaysia Super League clubSabah FC became the first club that hired Kurniawan as a head coach in December 2019. The decision followed the inability of the previous coach Jelius Ating to lead a top-tier team due to his lack of AFC Pro coaching license, which Kurniawan holds.[13][14]
Kurniawan's first season at Sabah reaped mixed reviews from club decision-makers with some applauding the first-time head coach for keeping the team out of relegation while some criticizing him for only winning two out of 11 matches played in the shortened2020 Malaysia Super League season amid theCOVID-19 pandemic. The latter group managed to push Kurniawan out in November 2020. However, a change of management leadership at the club led to a January 2021 rehiring of Kurniawan who was about to joinMalaysia Premier League clubKuching City F.C. as an assistant coach.[15] On 28 August 2021, Sabah lost 4–0 againstUiTM FC. Next days, Sabah announced that they had sacked Kurniawan.[16]
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 1995 | 4 | 3 |
| 1996 | 6 | 4 | |
| 1997 | 11 | 9 | |
| 1998 | 3 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2000 | 13 | 5 | |
| 2001 | 6 | 4 | |
| 2003 | 4 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 6 | 4 | |
| 2005 | 4 | 1 | |
| Total | 59 | 33 | |
| Team | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % | |||
| Sabah FC | 19 December 2019 | 29 August 2021[17] | 31 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 32 | 54 | −22 | 019.35 |
| Career total | 31 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 32 | 54 | −22 | 019.35 | ||
Kurniawan mostly resides inKuching,Sarawak,Malaysia where his second wife opens a restaurant business that has several outlets. Kurniawan met her when he was playing for Sarawak FA in 2005, two years after his divorce from his first wife.[18]
PSM Makassar
Persebaya Surabaya
Persija Jakarta
Persisam Putra Samarida
Persela Lamongan
Indonesia
Individual
Indonesia squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
