KATHMANDU, Jan 25: All Nepal Football Association on Wednesday named 36 players for the preliminary round of training for the AFC Challenge Cup finals to be held in Kathmandu from March 8-19. The training will begin from Monday.
Ten of the selected players -- Sabindra Shrestha of MMC, Jeetendra Karki and Raju Yogi of New Road Team, Tanka Basnet, Tek Bhadur Budhathoki and Nawayug Shrestha of Army, Bishal Rai A and B of Jawalakhel and Kunjan Gurung and Rupesh KC of Himalayan Sherpa -- have been called up for the first time to the national team´s training.[break]
The other selected players are Kiran Chemjong, Bikash Singh Chhetri, Biraj Maharjan and Anil Ojha of Three Star and Bikash Malla and Raju Tamang of Army.
Similarly, Ritesh Thapa, Rabin Shrestha, Bhola Silwal, Parbat Pandey, Jumanu Rai, Bharat Khawas and Ramesh Katwal of Police have been selected for the training. Bishal Shrestha, Sandip Rai, Deepak Bhusal, Nirajan Khadka, Bijay Gurung, Sujal Shrestha, Santosh Sahukhala and Anil Gurung of MMC have also made the cut.
Likewise, Sagar Thapa and Jagjeet Shrestha from Himalayan Sherpa, Nirajan Malla and Ganesh Lawati from APF and defender Rohit Chand, who is playing professional football in the I-League, have also been named in the list.
The tournament will feature eight teams from third-tier footballing nations of Asia. Group A consists of Nepal, Turkmenistan,Maldives and Palestine while Group B comprises DPR Korea, India, Tajikistan and the Philippines.