ANFA’s Humagai card to return 10 players to full-fledged national team
The Nepali national football team is currently without a head coach. ANFA has appointed American coach Pradeep Humagai as acting head coach during the absence of head coach Abdullah Almutairi. Humagai took US citizenship two years ago.
Humagai, who was the coach of Nepal Super League (NSL) team Lalitpur City last season, could not make a big impact. He was dismissed by the club when he failed. After that, Humagai said that he was a coach in some academies in America. Humagai, who showed his CV saying that he had a FIFA A coaching license, was dragged into the controversy. Now, as a coach, Humagai has taken a big leap to take over the leadership of the Nepali team.
It remains to be seen how he will perform in the national team. However, it is obvious that there will be big politics in the selection of Nepali team players. When the new leadership of ANFA came, the main agenda was to call the players to the respected national team. In writing, ANFA said that even if the players will be called to the national team, it is only until closed training.
ANFA has no hand in building the national team. However, this time, ANFA has adopted Humagai card for player selection. When Almutairi requested the players for the friendly match, the names of the players involved in the dispute were not sent. There were only names of two or three players wearing Anjan Bista.
If Almutairi had returned as a coach, then the decision made by the ANFA working committee meeting would have failed. Therefore, Humagai was appointed as a coach to call ten players to the national team, keeping the talks with Almutairi. According to the decision of the second meeting of the ANFA working committee, Humagai, who arrived in Nepal to take over the responsibility of the coach, has called 40 players for closed training, including the ten players involved in the dispute.
The friendly match will not affect anything, but Humagai will prepare the team according to the instructions given by ANFA. And only the main agenda of the new leadership of ANFA will be successful. The ten players in the controversy are the best. Questioning their abilities does not look good. However, the politics of ANFA will freeze here.
Humagai’s unnatural leap Acting coach Humagai is a supporter of the current ANFA leadership. He openly criticized the panel led by Karma Tshiring Sherpa, the former chairman of the election. Along with the criticism of Sherpa pan, Pankaj Vikram Nemwang also came out in support of the panel.
The ANFA leadership has given him the opportunity to take charge of the national team for one game as a gift to him who supported Nemwang to lead. The question is how successful Humagai, who has the chance to take charge of the national team for the first time, will be.
The national team is a big burden for Humagai, who was dismissed after failing in the NSL. He has not managed any professional club in America either. He is one of the 20 people on the list of coaches of the academy who says that he is the technical director of the Keystone Athletic Academy. Keystone Athletic Club’s technical director is Richard Orlowski.
Even when he was the coach of Lalitpur, he said that he was a FIFA ‘A’ grade licensed coach. However, he apologized when asked how he was included since he does not have an A grade license of FIFA. Humagai has had good success in the Nepali A Division League. He won the league for Three Star Club in 2013. When he won the league, he played the role of coach in all the games for the club.
ANFA said that only pro-licensed coaches will be kept in the Nepali team, but for one match, ANFA has kept a ‘volunteer’ coach. It is said that ANFA has agreed to pay him two lakh rupees for playing the role of a coach in a match. On the other hand, coach Humagai said that the time has come to prove himself. He said that even if he gets the responsibility of leading the Nepali team for one game, he will show himself to be successful in it.
ANFA has trusted me and given me this opportunity. Thanks to ANFA for that. I am more focused on how to perform than how many games. ANFA will not let the faith in me go to waste,” Humagai said on the day he took over as coach. The Nepali national team is playing a friendly football match against Bangladesh at the Dashrath Stadium in Kathmandu on October 11. For that, the Nepalese team is currently in closed training.