I was nervous in front of Gerrard: Yugesh

Kathmandu, October 20:

Yugesh Bhakta Bade Shrestha, the winner of the Carlsberg Football Trip of a Lifetime promotion, who presented the man of the match award to Steven Gerrard at Anfield said that he was surprised as well as nervous when his name was announced to award the man of the match award to the Liverpool skipper.

“I was surprised and nervous as well when the emcee announced my name to hand over the man of the match award to Gerrard whom I had seen playing in screens,” explained Shrestha at an interaction programme held at the Nepal Sports Journalists Forum today. Yugesh was the lucky person who won the Carlsberg Football Trip of Lifetime conducted by Carlsberg during the FIFA World Cup 2006.

He got an opportunity to watch the English Premiership match between Liverpool and Tottenham Hostpur on September 23.

“After watching the match at Anfield, I — along with the winners of such trips from other countries — was sitting at the VIP Suite and the players entered the room for brief introduction,” said Yugesh, the General Manager at Alliance Insurance Company.

“The moment with Gerrard was the most memorable incident in my life,” said Shrestha, who claimed of following the European football since 1992. “I had dreamt of watching the match at Anfield, but had never thought of getting an opportunity to reward one of the most popular footballers of the world,” he said.

“I was equally happy when I returned home and came to know that I was already a popular figure,” he added. “My family and friends congratulated me and I was overwhelmed by the way Nepali media carried out the news with photographs,” he added.