Iwan Setiawan

Iwan Setiawan was an Indonesian association football coach and former player whose name ran through almost every level of the domestic game for about thirty years. Supporters knew him as a touchline personality: confident, blunt, sometimes theatrical, often compared in the Indonesian press to Jose Mourinho. Colleagues remembered a different register. Persebaya Surabaya called him a good man and the first coach of the club's return. Aji Santoso, one of Indonesia's best-known coaches, called him the first mentor of his own coaching life.

He was born in Medan, North Sumatra. The calendar day of that birth is not safe to pin. Indonesian Wikipedia lists 5 July 1968 and age 58 at death. Bola.com, Headline.co.id, Harian Disway, Skor.id, and Media Indonesia list 5 July 1958 and age 68. CNN Indonesia's 3 September 2026 report says he died aged 58 and, later in the same piece, calls him Medan-born on 5 July 1958. Kompas.com the same morning said age 63. Those figures cannot all be true. This profile therefore records only the death date the sources agree on, 3 September 2026, and leaves birth date and age unmarked.

As a player he wore the shirts of Pelita Jaya, Arseto, and Persija Jakarta, and he represented Indonesia at youth level. Harian Disway lists under-16, under-19, under-23, and senior national-team experience. CNN Indonesia says a youth-team career and an injury cut the playing years short, after which he turned to coaching. Harian Disway places the end of his playing career in the mid-1990s.

Coaching began in 1997 with Persija Junior. Media Indonesia says he took AFC C and B licences that year, an AFC A licence in 2002, and a KNVB certificate from the Royal Dutch Football Academy. His Instagram bio, checked on 9 September 2026, reads "Profesional Football Coach", "AFC Pro Diploma", "Coach The Coach KNVB", and "Integrity". Skor.id describes him as part of the first Indonesian cohort to hold an AFC Pro licence. Indonesian Wikipedia lists him as an AFC A Pro licence holder and records a height of 170 cm. No university degree was found in the sources reviewed. The documented schooling is the licence path, not a campus record.

The club list is long and a little different in every obituary, which fits a coach who rarely stayed in one dugout. Indonesian and English Wikipedia record Persija Junior (1997), Persikabo Bogor (1998), Persija Jakarta (2001 and again 2011-2012), Persijatim Solo FC (2002), Persekaba Badung (2002), Indonesia under-17 (2004-2005), Persibom Bolaang Mongondow (2006-2007 and 2009), PSMS Medan (2008), Borneo (2014-2015 and 2017-2018), Persela Lamongan (2015 and 2021), Persebaya Surabaya (2017), Persidi Idi (2019), Serpong City (2021-2022), PS Siak (2022), Persibo Bojonegoro (2023-2025), Persema Malang (2026), and Sriwijaya FC (2026). CNN Indonesia describes a 2004/05 to 2005/06 spell with the Indonesia under-23 side. Media Indonesia adds an under-14 national-team role in the same mid-2000s window. Those youth-team labels overlap in the press. They are cited here as reported, not collapsed into one invented appointment.

Two club chapters define the public memory. At Borneo, Harian Disway says he led Pusamania Borneo FC to the second-tier title in the 2013/2014 season and the promotion that followed. At Persebaya, the club's own Instagram tribute, quoted by Tribun Surabaya, says he was the first coach when Persebaya returned to competition in Liga 2 in 2017, that he laid the foundation of that side, and that the club won Liga 2 at the end of that season. Persela used him more than once. A 1 June 2021 photograph by the Government of Lamongan Regency, later placed on Wikimedia Commons and used on both Wikipedia pages, shows him on the sideline in a Persela shirt, cap, glasses, and whistle.

He was also a public talker. Indonesian broadcasters and fan channels recorded him before matches, after departures, and in long sit-down interviews about integrity, controversy, and why he believed he should coach the national team. In 2017, after a confrontation with Persebaya's Bonek supporters, Official Persebaya posted his apology. The same year ForzaPersija filmed him on youth development and on playing always with heart. None of that made him a quiet figure. Press obituaries still lead with the Mourinho nickname and with psywar before big games, including comments aimed at fellow coach Indra Sjafri. The nicknames "Jose Mourinho-nya Indonesia" and "The Special One" are press labels for charisma and self-belief, not official titles.

The last job was Sriwijaya FC. Transfermarkt and Harian Disway date the appointment to 10 February 2026, for the 2025/26 Championship. Indonesian Wikipedia also records a short January 2026 agreement with Persema Malang in Liga 4 after the Persibo Bojonegoro contract ended in December 2025. Secretary of Sriwijaya FC Faisal Mursyid told Headline.co.id he learned of the death on the morning of 3 September 2026. CNN Indonesia says the news was first posted that morning by former Indonesia women's national-team coach Rudy Eka Priyambada, who called Setiawan "Ayah Iwan" and a coach with an honest soul, and recalled their last meeting at an NFD event in Yogyakarta. Indra Sjafri wrote that they had been discussing the philosophy of Indonesian football only the day before.

He died on the morning of Thursday 3 September 2026. Cause and place are not settled in the sources reviewed. Tangerang Ekspres, a local paper with named reporter Tri Budi Sulaksono, says he died at home in Villa Pamulang, Kecamatan Pamulang, at about 06:00 WIB after an illness he had been suffering, and that burial was planned that day at TPU Sarimulya, Kecamatan Setu. Media Indonesia says he died in Medan of a heart attack and gastric-acid complications. Tribun Sumsel quotes former Sriwijaya sporting director Anggoro Prajesta suspecting a long heart condition. Kompas does not give a medical cause. This profile does not treat any one place or any one medical cause as settled fact. The Sarimulya burial is recorded as reported planned the same day, not as a completed cemetery confirmation.

Survivors named in reliable sources are limited. Transfermarkt identifies goalkeeper Gary Anggrana Setiawan Anwar, born 9 November 1990, as the son of Iwan Setiawan, then head coach of Sriwijaya FC. A spouse, parents, siblings, and other children were not named in the obituaries, Wikipedia pages, or Transfermarkt pages reviewed, and none are invented here. Persebaya, Sriwijaya, Aji Santoso, Indra Sjafri, and Rudy Eka Priyambada supplied the public farewell. The Instagram account @iwansetiawancoach, whose bio matches his coaching credentials, was still up on 9 September 2026. No embeddable post permalinks were verified, so social posts are recorded as none found after a search of X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

This profile is the Indonesian football coach of Persija, Persebaya, and Sriwijaya. It is not hotel general manager Iwan Setiawan Sumantri. It is not the Indonesian Army officer pictured in the separate Commons file Waaslat Kasad Iwan Setiawan.jpg.