Jakarta: Indonesia’s legendary men’s doubles coach, Herry Iman Pierngadi, confirmed that the Chinese Badminton Association (CBA) had approached him last year, and he was offered a job to become China’s men’s doubles coach.
Herry Iman Pierngadi who earned the nickname of “Fire Dragon”, said CBA’s president, Zhang Jun, had met with him twice last year and asked him to coach China’s men’s doubles team, and offered three times the salary he is making at Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) today. However, he politely declined the offer because money was not his main motivation in training Indonesian players.
“I received many offers,” said Pierngadi.
“The last one was from China last year. Zhang Jun met with me in two meetings, then offered me to coach there,” added Pierngadi.
“But I refused. I said that my service is still needed in Indonesia,” continued Pierngadi.
“They are currently preparing for the Olympics. That’s why they want to recruit an experienced coach. We didn’t have a serious talk about the salary, but by talking to many of my friends over there, they said if I were to go to China, I would probably earn three times more than what I am making right now,” explained Pierngadi.
Pierngadi started his coaching career at PBSI in 1993. During his tenure at PBSI, he produced two Olympic gold medal pairs – Tony Gunawan/Candra Wijaya (2000 Sydney Olympics), Hendra Setiawan/Markis Kido (2008 Beijing Olympics), and more than five men’s pairs have reached World No. 1 status under his guidance.
Below are Indonesian coaches who currently coaching in foreign countries:
Rexy Mainaky (Malaysia – Doubles Coaching Director)
Hendrawan (Malaysia – Men’s Singles Coach)
Nova Widianto (Malaysia – Mixed Doubles Coach)
Agus Dwi Santoso (Thailand – Men’s Singles Coach)
Flandy Limpele (Hong Kong – Doubles Coach)
Chafidz Yusuf (Philippine – Doubles Coach)
