Himalayan News Service

Lalitpur, April 19:

Jawalakhel Youth Club signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with an Indian based company Mahindra and Mahindra and Adidas, which the club define as a step towards professionalism. “As the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) had vowed for the professionalism in football within five years, we have tried to give a small model for the cause,” said JYC in a statement released today. As per the one-year agreement, Mahinda and Mahindra will provide Rs 2,00,000 annually and will be the main sponsor for the club, while Adidas provided kits equivalent to Rs Rs 1,00,000. The club also signed 16 players including ANFA Academy goalkeeper Bikash Malla for Rs 1,00,000 for a year. Malla recently signed for Bangladesh’s premiership club for two months for $2,000.

The JYC also signed Tilak Gurung, Kiran Shrestha, Jay Thapa, Santosh Basnet, Anjan KC, Kamal Basnet, Gaurav Thapa, Bikash Subba, Anil Gurung and Santosh KC for Rs 60,000 for this season. Other newcomers in the JYC included Rojit KC (Rs 48,000), Upendra Thapa (Rs 24,000) and Krishna Lama (Rs 12,000). Other JYC players for the season are Dipesh Thapa, Doran Serchan, Bhagban Thapa, Sanoj Shrestha, Sachin Amatya, Ajaya Thapa, Raghu Khadka, Bal Bahadur Dingdong, Sunil Maharjan , Yubik Shrestha, Jaggu, Madhav Thapa and Suraj Kharbuja. After the support of the sponsors and the inclusion of new players, the JYC — which have been lingering around the mid-table in the national leagues — have increased their annual budget to Rs 1.3 million with the aim of finshing in top four. JYC were runners-up in 2038 and 2039 leagues. Biju Bajracharya, manager of Mahindra and Mahindra in Nepal, said that their company in India agreed to invest in football in Nepal, as the company have a premeirship team in India and were dedicated in promoting football. He also informed that the company team was looking forward to play a friendship match with JYC in Nepal and invite JYC to play in India. President of JYC Sunil SJB Rana thanked the sponsors for their support.