Central defender Elkan Baggott, who made his senior debut in Tuesday’s 2-0 EFL Trophy over Gillingham at Portman Road, has joined up with the Indonesian U19s squad at a training camp in Croatia.

The 17-year-old flew out to join up with the party, which has been training in Croatia since August 30th, in the early hours of yesterday morning.

It’s the second time the 6ft 4in tall central defender, who put in a composed display against the Gills, has been with the Indonesian U19s, having previously attended a camp in Jakarta in August.

Until his Blues debut on Tuesday, Baggott was somewhat better known to Indonesian fans than Town supporters.

Following his August call-up the second-year academy scholar, who was born in Thailand to an English father and Indonesian mother, quickly amassed a large Instagram following which is now close to the 58,000 mark, significantly in advance of any of the senior members of the Blues squad. A photo of him making his Town debut received nearly 23,000 likes.

Even his stretches and warm-up were filmed for YouTube and watched more than 100,000 times during his time at the previous camp.

"Very happy I can return to join the U19 national team at the training camp in Croatia,” Baggott said following his arrival.

“I am in good condition and ready to undergo the training regime with my U19 national team friends here.”

The Indonesian youngsters were set to play at the AFC U19 Championships in Uzbekistan from October 14th to 31st but the tournament has been delayed until early next year.

The U19s face NK Dugopolje in a training match at the NK Uskok Klis Stadium in Split today.

The squad have already played seven trial matches in Croatia, a 3-0 defeat to Bulgaria, a 7-1 loss to Croatia, a 3-3 draw with Saudi Arabia, a 2-1 win and 1-1 draw with Qatar, a 1-0 reverse against Bosnia Herzegovina and a 1-0 victory over Dinamo Zagreb.

Photo: Matchday Images

Pencilpete added 10:20 - Oct 8 Does anyone else have a really good feeling about some of the youngsters coming through maybe all the time and investment ME has put in the academy is starting to bear fruit and most importantly of all this is the Ipswich Town way :)
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Ipswichbusiness added 11:49 - Oct 8 Pencilpete; I agree. The problem will be keeping them once they have come through to the first team; promotion would help us to do that!
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Ericgates12 added 12:13 - Oct 8 Some very very good youngsters coming through. As you could see from the EFL cup match we have two 17 year old boys with outstanding talent. Gibbs and Baggott although very young played with old heads on their shoulders. Keeping hold of them should definitely be the clubs priority as they have now been showcased to the vultures out there. Good luck to them both.
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arc added 12:47 - Oct 8 Remind me of the rules–can he not sign a professional contract until he's 18? So he could be pinched by another club for peanuts until that happens? It would be a lovely story if he made it with us.
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PhilTWTD added 13:40 - Oct 8 Can sign a pro deal at 17, but only for two years. Until then, as he's a scholar, any interested party would have to agree compensation or the matter would go to a tribunal.
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rfretwell added 16:49 - Oct 8 If he keeps developing well and this virus curse subsides the club should look to capitalise on his massive fan base in the far east. Assuming we manage to fend off the premier league robber barons of course!
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GeoffSentence added 19:35 - Oct 8 is he going to have to quarantine for two weeks on his return?
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bobble added 05:42 - Oct 9 great country indonesia ,have spent many happy months there, hope they do well in the next few years and become a SE asian football power.
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