The All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) on Monday announced a 23-member squad for the upcoming Bangabandhu Gold Cup to be held in Bangladesh from January 8-20.

Nepali coach duo Upendra Man Singh and Bal Gopal Maharjan will look after the Nepali team for the tournament after regular coach Patrick Aussems left for France with his return uncertain. Aussems has already said he was not renewing his six-month contract, expiring in February, with Anfa. It is still unsure whether of not Aussems will take charge of the team in the February 6-16 South Asian Games in India.

Expressing surprise over Anfa’s choice of players, Aussems  once again blasted the football governing body. “I gave Anfa the list of 23 players for Bangladesh (Bangabandhu Gold Cup) and SAG in India. What a surprise today to discover a completely different list of players,” Aussems said in a statement circulated to media.

“I am working in a professional way so I cannot accept to lead a group with players I didn’t select. My flight to Kathmandu is planned on January 5th but regarding the situation, I think its useless for me to come back,” he added. Aussems had vented ire at Anfa, through social networking site Twitter, on Saturday for not acting professionally. And on Monday, he remained firm in his stance.

“I asked Anfa to give players all facilities to go on trial in Europe through my connections. Four or five of them will have the opportunity to go for two to three weeks in professional clubs and get the chance to sign contract with them. As we won’t have any official matches in the next two years, I asked Anfa to plan friendly matches at Fifa dates. These suggestions were made few weeks ago already. I asked Anfa board three times to give me their opinions about my plans but, right now, I don’t have any feedback,” Aussems stated.

Meanwhile, coach Maharjan said the current squad is formed considering the SA Games. “We have South Asian Games next after the Bangabandhu Cup and this tournament will help in the fine-tuning our performance for the regional meet,” said Maharjan adding some changes will be made for the Games.

“Few players will go out from here but we can say that it is a squad that will compete in the South Asian Games. There are some strong teams in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup and our boys are competitive. We are eager to see how these boys fare in Bangladesh,” added Maharjan.

The squad comprises of a majority from the U-19 squad with Biraj Maharjan, Jagjeet Shrestha, Rabin Shrestha and Bikram Lama among the most experienced players. Alan Neupane, Amrit Chaudhary and Bikesh Kuthu are the three goalkeepers. Rabin, Biraj, Aditya Chaudhary, Ananta Tamang, Devendra Tamang, Kamal Shrestha and Man Bahadur Tamang are the defenders.

The team includes nine midfielders in Anjan Bista, Bikram, Bishal Rai, Heman Gurung, Jagjeet, Jangbu Sherpa, Prakash Budhathoki, Sunil Bal and Tej Tamang, while Bimal Gharti Magar, Nawayug Shrestha, Suman Lama and Ranjan Bista are the forwards.

Nepal are pitted in Group ‘A’ of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup alongside defending champions Malaysia. Hosts Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are the other two teams in the pool. Nepal play their tournament opener on January 9 against Malaysia before meeting Sri Lanka (Jan 12) and Bangladesh (Jan 14). The semi-finals are on January 17 and 18 with the final on 20.