Evan Dimas

Evan Dimas Darmono (born 13 March 1995) is an Indonesian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Liga 1 club PSIS Semarang, on loan from Arema.

Evan Dimas was born in the city of Surabaya in East Java province to a low-income family that once depended on his father Condro Darmono's job as a security guard.

As one of the highest paid Indonesian footballers, Evan is now the breadwinner of his extensive family.

He is a devout Muslim who celebrates every goal by performing the Sujud.

He is currently also enrolled as a student at the Dr. Soetomo University, majoring in public administration.

His favorite player and inspiration is former Barcelona midfielder, Andrés Iniesta who showed diminutive players can also excel on the world level.

He idolized Persebaya Surabaya during childhood and cut teeth in the club's youth team.

Evan Dimas trained at Surabaya soccer schools for boys until he entered Persebaya's youth team in 2010 at the age of 15.

While at Persebaya, Evan became a regular member of the Indonesian national youth squads of various age levels.

He also trained in Spain after being chosen with other Indonesian young players to visit Barcelona's training facilities.

However, when the youth star decided to become a professional player, Persebaya was embroiled in an internal schism derived from the 2011-2014 dualism of Indonesian football.

Several top-flight clubs at that time split into two factions with one following the Indonesian Super League (ISL) while the other joining the short-lived Indonesian Premier League (LPI).

In 2012, he also attended the now-defunct Nike Academy, a program run by Nike Inc. that gathered promising teenage footballers from around the world.

After years of training in the Persebaya system, it was natural for Evan Dimas to enter the senior team of the club.

Barito languished at the 13th position when the season concluded and failed to keep Evan for another year.

He signed his first professional contract in 2014, when Indonesian football was complicated by the dualism of several clubs, with a faction of Persebaya that later became Bhayangkara.

Evan along with six other teenage players chose in November 2014 to join the ISL faction of Persebaya.

After unification attempts in 2014-16 and a series of legal naming disputes, this team in 2016 turned into Bhayangkara with financial support from the Indonesian National Police.

As soon as Evan joined in November 2014, A-League club Brisbane Roar showed interest in hiring the midfielder on loan from Persebaya.

However, a deal did not pan out.

After months of tumult in Indonesian football that forced ISL to start its 2015 season in April, Evan made his debut for Persebaya on 5 April 2015 as a late substitute in a 1–0 victory against Mitra Kukar at Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium in Surabaya.

However, Evan's much-anticipated entry into professional football was ruined by a government intervention to stop the ISL in May 2015.

That intervention itself prompted FIFA to ban Indonesia from all authorized footballing activities for one year.

During the FIFA suspension, Persebaya initiated to send its young star to Spain where Evan can train and trial with several clubs, including Segunda Division club UE Llagostera and the B team of La Liga club RCD Espanyol.

However, he failed to impress clubs there enough to hire him.

When Evan Dimas returned to Indonesia in mid-2016, the Persebaya club that he represented had lost in legal disputes and eventually renamed itself into Bhayangkara with the support of the Indonesian National Police.

Evan joined the Bhayangkara team that participated in the 2016 Indonesia Soccer Championship A.

The next year, with Evan at the heart of its midfield, Bhayangkara won the 2017 Liga 1 title, which was the first trophy in his professional career.

This achievement led to offers from clubs abroad.

On 2 December 2017, Evan signed a one-year contract with Malaysia Super League club Selangor on a free transfer, along with Indonesian compatriot Ilham Armaiyn.

He made his first-team debut for Selangor when he was part of the starting lineup of a 2018 Malaysia Super League match against Kuala Lumpur on 4 February 2018, in which Selangor won.

Evan scored his first league goal in the 2018 Malaysia Super League for Selangor in a 2–1 victory over PKNS at the Kuala Lumpur Stadium.

While he had a good season in his first year overseas with 20 appearances and two goals, Evan decided to return home at the end of the contract year.

On 26 December 2018, Evan signed a one-year contract with Liga 1 side Barito Putera.

Evan made his Barito Putera debut in the first leg Round of 32 2018–19 Piala Indonesia against PSS Sleman on 23 January 2019.

Evan made his first Liga 1 appearance on 20 May 2019, coming on as a starter in a 1–1 draw with Persija Jakarta at the 17th May Stadium.

Evan scored his first league goal in the 2019 Liga 1 for Barito Putera in a 4–2 loss over Bhayangkara at the Patriot Stadium.

Although Evan played regularly and scored two goals in the 2019 Liga 1 season, he did not show the performance that grabbed attention and the national title in 2017.

After weeks of speculation around which team would interest him, Evan signed for one of the richest clubs in Indonesia, Persija Jakarta, to play in the 2020 Liga 1.

Evan made his Persija debut in a 3–2 win against Borneo on 1 March 2020 as a substitute for Sandi Sute in the 19th minute, and he also scored his first goal for the team in the 86th minute.