Jakarta - Indonesia striker Jens Raven hopes to enjoy regional success when the hosts face champions Vietnam in the ASEAN U-23 Mandiri Cup™ 2025 final on Tuesday having previously played a key role in his nation’s victory in the ASEAN U-19 Boys’ Championship last year.
The Netherlands-born forward made his Indonesia debut a year ago when they hosted the U-19 Championship in Surabaya and impressed with four goals in the tournament, including a crucial effort in the final.
“I managed to score the winning goal in the final against Thailand,” recalls Raven, who turns 20 in October. “It was a very happy moment for me to win a trophy in my first official tournament with Indonesia and I hope that I can now win back-to-back ASEAN titles with Indonesia.
“I am really excited that we have made it to the U-23 final. It will be a tough game against Vietnam but I am looking forward to it and I am confident that I can win another tournament with Indonesia.”
The 1.87-metre striker has continued his fine scoring form in the Mandiri Cup™ 2025. With one game left in the tournament, he is well ahead of his rivals in the race for the top scorer award after he marked his debut at U-23 level by scoring six goals in Indonesia’s 8-0 win over Brunei.
“It was a very special moment for me because I have never scored that many goals in a tournament, or even in one game,” he said.
“I am very happy that I could score six goals, but without my team-mates, I could never have managed that. The team is very important to me and I was very happy that I could make my debut for the U-23s in such a special way.”
Raven made it seven goals in the tournament by burying a crucial late header in the semi-finals against Thailand, which sent the match to extra time as Indonesia outlasted their opponents in a penalty shoot-out to reach the final at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
“That was a really emotional moment because we were 1-0 down and it was the 84th minute, so we really didn’t have that much time left to play,” said Raven.
“All the fans in the stadium were singing and supporting us and so it was a really important goal to send the game to extra-time.
“I’m very happy to have scored that goal so we could go on to extra-time and then win the game reach the final. As a team, we played a good game and we always trusted and believed in ourselves, so scoring at that moment meant a lot to me.”
While Raven and his team-mates are firmly focused on the match against Vietnam, the striker has his own long-terms targets, playing for Indonesia’s U-23 side and for Bali United, the Liga 1 side that he joined just before the start of the Mandiri Cup™ 2025.
“My main target for now is to win the ASEAN U-23 Mandiri Cup™, but long-term, I hope I can help our team to reach the AFC U-23 Asian Cup next year and maybe qualify and play at the Olympics in Los Angelese for Indonesia in 2028,” he said.
“With Bali United, I hope to play a lot of minutes in all the competitions, to develop myself, to score some goals and to help us finish as high as possible in the Liga 1 ranking.”
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