Nepali players headed in the wrong direction

Jagjit Shrestha and Anil Gurung most recently went West to Germany and England respectively to try their luck in European football. Rohit Chand could join them if his paperwork ever gets sorted. With the help of the Nepali diaspora, and sometimes dodgy agents, footballers are increasingly finding new opportunities to play or at the very least go for trials at Western clubs. There is one slight issue however, the Western clubs we are talking about are not Manchester United or Bayern Munich or even Scunthorpe United or 1860 Munich for that matter. They are semi-pro and amateur clubs buried in the deep pyramid structures of European football.

Read the full article at GoalNepal.com

Away

I'm taking a break (need to concentrate on a project). Hope to be back blogging soon.

An apology

1994, the last time Nepal won a South Asian tournament

I apologize for believing in the potential of Nepali football and holding it to very high standards. I feel we are capable of a lot more than just beating the likes of Afghanistan and East Timor and one of our national team players going for trials with a 6th division English semi-pro club.

From now on I will do my best to temper my optimism and learn from our wise and pragmatic soccer officials about Nepal's limitations and insurmountable challenges in domestic and international football.

Youth Football

Youth competitions are a platform for players to develop. As long as Nepal played well and there are some promising players coming up the ranks that is all that matters. The scoreline is irrelevant. When the focus is on winning, players don't develop as coaches will only concentrate on the players' strengths and not their weaknesses.

ANFA Academy - Dharan (Under 12) trainees

Rohit Chand

Update August 4: Now Rohit is being linked to Lille!

I was absolutely floored when I saw this on the BBC Website:

1723: FOOTBALL - North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham will battle it out to sign 18-year-old Nepalese defender Rohit Chand, who plays for Indian First Division side Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) SC, reports talkSPORT.

Here's the BBC link and the TalkSport interview. A few websites are re-reporting it here and here and here.

As the former captain and star player of Machhindra FC, Rohit Chand is one of my favorite players. I definitely could see him playing in the the top flight of 2nd tier European league (e.g. Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark) in a few years time - but the Premier League, WOW! that would be beyond my wildest thoughts. Let's see what happens.

Here is a great highlights video of Rohit when he was at Machhindra:

A great interview with him can be found here. His Official Website. Some photos of Rohit (Media are free to use):