Beckham’s Nepali teammates

Bibhuti Lamichhane and Saral Kojo can claim to be teammates of beloved football legend David Beckham after being part of a charity football match in Bhaktapur, for his new BBC Documentary, For the Love of the Game.

Beckham, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and the man behind the David Beckham UNICEF Fund launched in 2015, undertook a unique challenge- to play seven football matches in seven continents n nine days, to raise awareness of UNICEF’s work for children around the world.

In Kathmandu past November to play a match with students from Shree Padma Higher Secondary School, Bibhuti and Saral became the lucky few to meet the man up close.

Bibhuti is a 13 year old from Bhaktapur and a passionate football player. “I’m not a great (football) player, I don’t know all the rules, but I always play with full power. I give 100% and I convince my friends to give 100%,”says the aspiring civil engineer.

Saral Kojo, an 18 year old says that football is an important coping mechanism. “When I play football, I don’t remember the earthquake. It’s football, only football when I’m playing.”

The match drew thousands of fans to the courtyards of Bhaktapur Durbar Square and was streamed live on MyEye app. The documentary is available to watch now on BBC IPlayer for UK viewers in the link below:

http://The documentary is available on BBC IPlayer for UK viewers.

The ambitious journey took to the father-of-four to various locations, going from Papau New Guinea to the foothills of Nepal, the streets of Buenos Aires, the deserts of Djibouti to the elevated pitches of Miami.

You can read the full blog post Beckham’s Nepali teammates on the link below:

http://blogs.unicef.org.uk/2015/12/29/love-game-meet-david-beckhams-teammates-nepal/