POKHARA: Influential National team striker Anil Gurung handed over Rs 100,000 for the establishment of Sahara Academy, run by the Sahara Club of Pokhara, today.

Anil, who started his career from the Sahara Club handed over the amount to the club president Bikram Thakali in a programme organised to felicitate the player himself. The amount include Rs 80,000 raised by Sahara UK while the striker donated an additional Rs 20,000 from his pocket. Sahara Club feted Anil after he became Nepal’s highest paid footballer signing a lucrative Rs 6.36 million contract for three years with the I-league outfit Shillong Lajong.

Anil is currently in Nepal during the season break of I-league and had represented Nepal in the sixth South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship. One of the national team regulars, Anil scored a brace against Afghanistan in the final league match of the SAFF Championship in Dhaka recently.

Anil is indebted to the club in many ways, from grooming his talent to helping him in his endeavor to play with the top flight clubs. The club had arranged for the player’s trial in England’s non-league Woking Football Club. But his dream of playing professional English football was shattered after he was denied the work permit. The UK based Sahara Club had also helped Anil financialy during his trial at the Woking.

The club also feted national team coach Krishna Thapa and National Sports Council member Khadga Bahadur Ranabhat during the programme. Sahara Club are planning to establish the academy at Dovilla in Pokhara Sub-metropolis. Rs 1.9 million had already been raised, thanks to generous foreign donors for the establishment of the academy which is estimated to cost about Rs 12.4 million.