ANFA unveils squad, coach Aussems not satisfied

Lalitpur, January 4

All Nepal Football Association today announced a 23-member squad for the Bangabandhu Gold Cup slated for January 8-18 in Bangladesh.

Nepal are in Group A along with Malaysia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Nepal will play their first match against Malaysia on January 9 in Sylhet before taking on Sri Lanka on January 12 in Dhaka and they will play against hosts Bangladesh on January 14 in the final league match.

The team coaching responsibility is given to Bal Gopal Maharjan, while Upendra Man Singh is the goalkeeping coach. Birat Jung Shahi is the team manager. Coach Maharjan and Singh had selected the squad after a training camp.

Meanwhile, Nepal’s head coach Patrick Aussems was not satisfied with the squad selected by the ANFA. Aussems had given a list of players to ANFA and was surprised to see a new team. “What a surprise today to discover a completely different list of players!! I am working in a professional way so I cannot accept to lead a group with players I didn’t select …,” Aussems wrote in the mail sent to ANFA.

ANFA CEO Indraman Tuladhar said he had talked with coach Aussems about the squad. “We had called different players for training and asked him to select the squad. He was not available as he had gone to France due to his personal reason,” Tuladhar said. “We had to finalise the squad by Monday, so we asked for his consent to allow his assistants to select the team.” Tuladhar further added that Aussems was also not satisfied with his assistants during the SAFF championship. “Aussems said he is not happy with his assist coaches and he was not available for the Bangabandhu Gold Cup,” added Tuladhar.

Maharjan had selected Alan Neupane, Amrit Chaudhary and Bikesh Kuthu in goalkeeping position, while Aditya Chaudhary, Ananta Tamang, Biraj Maharjan, Devendra Tamang, Kamal Shrestha, Man Bahadur Tamang and Robin Shrestha are in the defending role. Anjan Bista, Bikram Lama, Bishal Rai, Heman Gurung, Jagajeet Shrestha, Jangbu Sherpa, Prakash Budhathoki, Sunil Bal and Tej Tamang are midfielders. Bimal Gharti Magar, Nawayug Shrestha, Ranjan Bista and Suman Lama have been selected as the forwards.