African United lift the Budha Subba Gold Cup in Nepal

African United Football Team (Group Photo before the Final match)

African United, a team made of assembled African players playing football in Nepal, lifted the title of 16th Budha Subba Gold Cup defeating Sahara Club of Pokhara 4 – 3 on tie-breaker in the finals held at the ANFA Technical Center in Dharan, Eastern Nepal on Saturday.

After the goalless draw in regulation and added time, the match went to tie-breaker to decide the champions. Custodian Binay Shrestha saved two penalties for African United to help them lift the title. It is African United’s 2nd Budha Subba Gold Cup title as they have won the tournament 8 years ago and had finished as runners-up a year later.

Sahara made a disastrous start in the tie-breaker as man-of-the-match Binay Shrestha saved Anil Ojha’s shot before denying Bijay Gurung in the fifth penalty. Suman Lama, Bhupal Gurung and goalkeeper Sagar Gurung converted their penalties for Sahara while Sissoka, Akin Babatunde, Mumbara and Peter scored for African United.

Winners African United bagged cash prize of Nepalese Rs 3,250,000 while Sahara Club received Nepalese Rs 1,620,500.

African United custodian Binay Shrestha was named the player of the tournament while his teammate Sissoko and coach Tandukar were judged the best defender and best coach of the tournament. Binay Shrestha was awarded a Yamaha motorbike. Similarly Sahara Clubs’s Sagar Gurung, Hemanta Gurung and Bijay Gurung were judged best goalkeeper, best midfielder and best striker of the tournament respectively. Sahara Clubs’s Suman and African United’s Segun were the joint top goal scorers of the tournament.

The top 12 teams of Nepal participated in the 16th edition of the prestigious Budha Subba Gold Cup which is held annually in Dharan, beautiful city in Eastern Nepal.