Croatian forward Marko Šimić, arguably one of the greatest players to grace Jakarta’s beloved soccer team Persija, has announced that he has unilaterally terminated his contract alleging that the club had failed to pay him for a year.
The 34-year-old icon took to Instagram yesterday to post a statement in Indonesian and English addressed to his friends, followers, and supporters — saying that they deserve to know the truth. In the letter, Šimić explained that Persija has “heavily breached his contract” by not paying his salary for a year.
“After 4.5 years at Persija, 98 goals, 4 trophies, unforgettable moments, individual awards and records were broken. This was the hardest decision in my life,” Šimić wrote.
Šimić, who signed with Persija in 2017 after a stint in the Malaysia Premier League, said that he had been given false promises for months and even frozen out of the team, all because he rightfully asked for his salary. He said he unilaterally rescinded his contract because he “needed to do what was best.”
The statement ends in a bittersweet note as Šimić expressed his love for Persija and Jakarta, and that he will remember the good moments forever, signing off with his nickname, “Super Simic.”
Rumors of Šimić’s departure from one of Indonesia’s most successful clubs had circulated after his name was omitted from the club’s official roster towards the end of the 2021/2022 season of Liga 1, the country’s top flight soccer league.
Persija, which recently signed German manager and former player Thomas Doll as their manager and coach, have released a statement regarding Šimić’s contract termination today. Signed by the club’s president Mohamad Prapanca, it begins with stating that Persija is an “obedient and law-abiding club.”
“The statement that said that a player’s salary hadn’t been paid for a year is not true. There was a salary adjustment that was applied referring to a decision by Indonesia’s Football Association (PSSI) regarding the termination of the competition due to COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement reads.
The decree issued by PSSI mandated that all clubs cut players’ salaries by up to 25 percent in order to protect the clubs’ finances, as matches were suspended throughout the pandemic. Prapanca claimed that all players, including Šimić, agreed to the policy at the time.
However, as time went by, Prapanca said Šimić appeared to have understood some finer points of the measure differently, and that he allegedly wanted more than what was agreed after the cut was imposed. Local sports outlets pointed out that this created a rift between Persija and Šimić, which ended up in him being omitted from the squad in the last six Liga 1 matches.
“Basically, Persija Jakarta is a club that always supports its players’ careers. It’s not true that Persija intended to jeopardize their player’s career, moreover the player has fought together and scored many achievements,” Prapanca said.
