Why Nepalese strikers Could not score ?

When National Squad is announced, we hardly see a new name in the attacking third in the squad sheet. Why is it so?

This is guest post by Aashraya Adhikari, you can post your articles, send at [email protected]

Out of 12 teams in A Division League, there were half of the teams with foreign player as their leading men. And among those remaining half clubs who used Nepali strikers as their forward, almost everyone were from the National Team squad.

Jumanu Rai led  Nepal Police Club attack while Santosh Shahukhala was top scorer for Three Star Club. Karna Limbu ended as the top scorer in the league and his scoring spree meant Machhindra ended the season in second spot, their best ever in their history. Karna has recently been called up for the national camp too. Bhola Silwal scored 7 goals from the midfield but in National team he is delpoyed as a deep lying midfielder or in the right flank.

Anil Gurung scored 7 goals for Manang but 3 of them were in a same match and he was not the top scorer for his club. Yona Elias led the scoring chart for the champions with 9 goals while Dipak Rai managed same number of goal as #10 of National team Anil Gurung. Deepak Rai is also included in the national team. Bharat Shah is the only Nepalese Player in the top 10 goalscorer who is yet to have a International call up and he is just aged 19. With the quality of striker of Nepal decreasing in National arena, how can we expect a quality forward to step up in International games.

For the past seasons, we have hardly seen some new names in the scoring chart in the league and the list off forwards has remained somehow unchanged. Bishal Rai ‘A’ was once called up in the squad but he did not make the final cut. Karna Limbu has been recently called up and handed his first cap but only in dying minutes and we must see if he can lead the line tlatter. Dipak Rai played as a striker in India Friendly some months ago and he had a good game. But if he is to make the position , he must play up front in domestic League as well. He currently plays as wide men for Manang with Anil Gurung and Yona Elias preferred at the top.

Asim Jung Karki was awarded the MVP of NCell Cup 2070 and many people thought he might be the savior for us but in the league he had an off time. He failed to score a single goal throughout the league while his team’s goalkeeper scored one playing up front alongside him in the last league outing. Consistency has been a problem for him since his days with NRT. He captained the U-19 squad in recently held tournament as well.

Bimal Gharti Magar has been talk of the town these days. In young age of 16, he debuted for the National Team and was a hero in SAFF Championship match against Pakistan with a late goal. He has been impressing in youth level and returned from successful trial at FC Twente back in Netherlands. He has been called up by RSC Andrelecht to play for their youth side and if the days go by as they have gone, we might just see a player playing European League lead the Nepali forward line and solve the problem that has been breaking our back.