Lalitpur, September 17 Ministry for Youth and Sports today rewarded the youth football team for its historic victory in last month’s first SAFF U-19 Championship on home soil. Minister Purushottam Paudel, Secretary Dipendra Nath Sharma, Member Secretary of National Sports Council Keshab Kumar Bista and All Nepal Football Association President Ganesh Thapa handed over Rs 100,000 each and felicitation letter to the 28-member team — 23 players, three coaches, and one each team manager and physio. Nepal had won the title of the regional tournament with a 5-4 victory over India in penalty shootout after the teams were deadlocked at 1-1 in regulation period. The trophy was the first for any age-group team, while it ended 22-year title drought in all levels. The Nepali team finished the tournament as an unbeaten team. They opened with a 3-1 victory over Bhutan, before beating Bangladesh 2-1 to advance to the semi-finals. Nepal then defeated Afghanistan 3-2 in the semi-finals and beat India in final. Minister Paudel said Nepal were able to beat strong nations only in sports and the ministry felicitated the team as per its capacity. “Not only football, we will reward all the medal-winning players and teams,” said Paudel. Secretary Sharma said the U-19 team’s victory re-energized Nepali sports sector and urged the players to concentrate on their game. “We are here to take care of other issues,” said Sharma. ANFA President Thapa, who is also the CA Member, said the success came after a lot of hard works. “It did not come overnight, the ANFA has done a lot of hard works to prepare the team,” said Thapa. “The triumph has also motivated other teams to do well,” he added. The winning team included skipper Bimal Gharti Magar, Sojit Gurung, Roman Rasaili, Dev Limbu, Ananta Tamang, Amit Tamang, Chhiring Gurung, Akash Thapa, Sinesh Rajbanshi, Sudan Thapa, Gaurav Budhathoki, Hemanta Thapa Magar, Kamal Shrestha, Dona Thapa, Tej Tamang, Kiran Sunar, Bishwas Shrestha, Sushan Lama, Sunil Bam, Anjan Bista, Sujit Gurung, Shiva Subedi and Janom Man Ligal. Bal Gopal Maharjan was the head coach, while Sunil Shrestha and Mrigendra Mishra were his deputy. Diwakar Ghale was the team manager and Raju Dahal was physio of the team.