Kathmandu: Nepal's skipper Biraj Maharjan was surprisingly
left out from the 23-member Nepali squad that is set to play friendly football
against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta'zim FC to fine tune the
team for the FIFA World Cup and Asia Cup Preliminary Joint Qualification. Nepal
is set to visit Kuwait in the first match on September 5. Though Maharjan was
in the regular training, the 28-year-old failed to impress Nepal's Swedish coach
Johan Kalin.
One of the main reasons for his exclusion from the squad was
his under par fitness level. " Fitness is also an issue, but the other
players were better than him in the training. Football is a competitive sport
and anyone who perform better will make to the squad," he said who was
appointed for a two-year stint at the hot seat beginning on March 1.
Not only for Kalin, but for all national team coaches,
fitness of players have always been an issue. Even there was an incident of
brawl between first choice goalkeeper Kiran Chemjong and fitness trainer Bivek
Bikrant Adhikari on June 23 with the shot stopper alleging him of over-training
them. The incident eventually cost job of the fitness training and Chemjong was
reprimanded.
The professional players are themselves expected to be fit
rather than gain fitness at the national team camp. But such is not the case in
Nepal. "The players are working hard and some players are really fit and
others are not that fit," said the Swedish national before finalising the
squad. But with the axing of Maharjan, the captain since 2016, he gave a message
loud and clear that fitness would be key to remain in the team.
Pointing out the root cause of lack of fitness, the Kalin
said that the players need to play competitive football round the year. In his
words, players can't get football fitness just by running. "you can get
football fitness only if you play football. Running 10km a day won't help
player. They may become a good runner but not footballer. You need to be on the
pitch for fitness round the year but Nepali players are hardly signed by clubs
for three to five months," he said.
The words of Kalin highlight bitter truth of national stars
who have been unemployed (except players with departmental team) since last two
months and they are still in dark when they would next get contracts from the
clubs. As most of the national players of were with two biggest clubs of the
country -- Three Star and Manang Marshyangdi Club -- they were not released in
April like most other clubs.
Footballers are offered contract only few weeks or sometimes
a month before the top tier league known as Martyrs Memorial 'A' Division
League begins. The last league hardly
lasted for four months and most of the clubs released players promptly after
the event was over in April. As this edition's league is still uncertain, it is
still unknown when the players would get professional contract and become
employed. Thus in such scenario of domestic football, it is difficult to expect
that all players called for the national team be fit.
But even one could point finger to the player himself who
dream to represent national team. Is not the player responsible to maintain hi
fitness level when he dream of playing in the bigger stage. The serious
question that arise is do our players lack professional attitude? Kalin though declined to say directly that
Nepali players don't have professional attitude, he pointed out lack of
football education and techniques for self training as one of the main reasons
for fitness issue. It is high time that players, not only footballers, but of
other games as well to develop professional attitude.
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