Only 21 years old and already 3.8 million followers on Instagram. Fortuna Sittard player Justin Hubner is a normal boy from Den Bosch from a distance, but because of his Indonesian roots a superstar in a football-crazy country. It yields the 15-time international a lot. Both positive and negative. “I also regularly get death threats.”
Hubner was one of the most striking purchases at the Limburg club this summer, if not the most striking. His social media are full of flashy photos that outline a Hollywood existence. From its own perfume line to collaboration with large fashion brands.
Star status
It is all part of his life since he made his debut at the beginning of 2024 for the national team of Indonesia. “I really have a star status there,” he says. “You can’t walk there normally, you just feel yourself Ronaldo,” he says delighted to the NOS.
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“Sometimes I can’t quite believe it either. I just feel like a normal boy who plays football, but they look at it differently. You see crying people running after you, because they want to be photographed with you. Then I think at the end of the day: wow, that this all happens. To have that status in Europe, you have to be a big name from the Premier League.”
Great unknown
He is a big stranger to the Dutch public. Hubner comes from Den Bosch, but never played in the Eredivisie. He left for England at the age of sixteen where he ended up in the youth of Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers. He never got the first team there.
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Indonesia offered a solution, because because of his international career he ended up with the Japanese Cerezo Osaka. There the counter also stopped after eight duels, the majority of which as a substitute. All in all, his football career is still in its infancy. Yet it is good for a jet set life next to the field, although that life also has a downside.
A lot of hatred
“Those shoots, followers and beautiful events are the beautiful side, but I also get a lot of hatred over me online. You get the craziest things over you. I am regularly threatened with death. It is not normal, but I just try to deal with it. That goes pretty well. The majority of the reactions is positive and I focus on that.”
Because Hubner has other things on his mind. He tries to succeed as a professional football player. “In Europe I don’t have the status that I have in Asia. I still have everything to prove in the Netherlands. So I have to play as much as possible. I am really looking forward to it. I have stood still for too long. This is what I prefer to do.”
