According to midfielder Gurung, skipper of the national team during the AFC U-16 qualifiers held in September 2011, three players of the academy have confirmed their enrolment in Himalayan Sherpa for the current season. [break]
Hamal is a striker while Shrestha is a defender.
"We have been undergoing training with Himalayan Sherpa Club since Monday," Gurung said, adding, "We had already signed an internal contract with the club but we are yet to finalize the agreement. ANFA is likely to finalize the agreement on Sunday."
Regarding his target at the club, Gurung said, "I will work hard in the club and try to secure my place in the starting line-up for the upcoming Ncell Cup." The Ncell Cup is scheduled to begin from September 12.
Gurung has joined the club for a monthly fee of Rs 15,000 while Shrestha and Hamal will be given Rs 12,000 per month.
Forward Hamal said he would do his best to secure his place in the starting line-up and then vie for a place in the national squad.
Himalayan Sherpa Club president Karma Tshering Sherpa said the club is in the process of signing new players. "We are in the process of signing players but the process is yet to conclude. We´ll complete the process in 3-4 days."
Arjun Lama has been training players at the club.
All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) had released U-17 age group players from its academy on Wednesday after none of the top flight clubs expressed interest in signing 15 players as proposed by ANFA earlier.
ANFA had divided its fifth batch of 30 players into two groups of 15 each. ANFA had priced each team at Rs 1.5 million, according to ANFA Spokesperson and Vice-president Lalit Krishna Shrestha. "But none of the clubs were ready to sign the entire team. Thus we decided to release the players," Shrestha told Republica.
Shrestha said, "Most of the clubs have their own set and they do not want to sign the whole team because they would have more players than required."
However, an ANFA official who did not want to be named blamed the players´ poor performance as the reason behind the clubs´ unwillingness to sign the entire team. "Only few players are good. If all players of the academy had been equally good the clubs would have signed the entire team," he said.
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