Kathmandu, August 16

All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) on Sunday announced final squad for the first SAFF U-19 Championship slated for August 20-29 in Kathmandu.

ANFA picked up a 23-member team including three goalkeepers, eight defenders, seven midfielders and five forwards from the 32 players who were in the final phase training. Among them five players are also in the 30-member preliminary squad for the friendly match against India later this month.

Sushan Lama and Tej Tamang have been picked up from open selection, while 21 other players are from the ANFA Academy. Bimal Gharti Magar will lead the team. Sojit Gurung, Roman Rasaili, Devraj Limbu, Ananta Tamang, Amit Tamang, Tchiring Gurung, Aakash Thapa, Dinesh Rajbanshi, Sudan Thapa, Gaurav Budathoki, Kamal Shrestha, Hemanta Thapa Magar, Dona Thapa, Tej Tamang, Kiran Sunar, Biswas Shrestha, Shusan Lama, Sunil Bal, Anjan Bista, Sujit Gurung, Shiva Subedi and Jamon Man Ligal are the other players in the squad.

Bal Gopal Maharjan (head coach), Sunil Shrestha (coach) and Mrigendra Mishra (goalkeeping coach) are in the coaching staff, while Diwakar Ghale is Team Manager. Nepal are in Group ‘A’ along with Bhutan and Bangladesh, while India, Maldives and Afghanistan are in Group B. Nepal will open their campaign with a match against Bhutan on August 20 and meet Bangladesh on August 24. ANFA is yet to fix the venues.