So far, only four Asian countries have made it to the World Cup in the conventional way - Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran. When the most watched sports event, the football World Cup, kicks off in Germany this year, billions of viewers will see - in addition to the teams from 32 countries - Nepali players score a telling win, courtesy the new Coke ad.

Nepal did make it in some ways huh, Kudos to nepal

< font size = '12'>Nepal wins wild card to World Cup


By Sudeshna Sarkar, Kathmandu: When the most watched sports event, the football World Cup, kicks off in Germany this year, billions of viewers will see - in addition to the teams from 32 countries - Nepali players score a telling win, courtesy the new Coke ad.

For its upmarket Powerades drink, to be shown during the World Cup matches, Coke decided to shoot a new ad and chose Nepal as its locale.

Snowy Mustang district in northern Nepal, once part of the ancient Tibetan kingdom and even now retaining its old world flavour with yaks plying the roads, was chosen as the site for the new shoot.

A team from Germany went to Jhong village, a seven-hour walk from Jomsom, the district headquarters.

Accompanying it were 20 footballers chosen from Nepal. While 10 of the players are Nepalis, the rest are African booters who have been playing with Nepali clubs.

Recently, the African players in Nepal formed a club of their own, African United (AU), which participated in local tourneys and won at least two tournaments.

AU captain Nigerian Obagbemiro, who had been playing for the Brigade Boys' Club of Kathmandu, caught the eye because of his spirited performance, including at the Marturs' Memorial League, where he was the highest goal scorer.

The ad shows the diminutive Nepali players besting the tall, strapping Africans, powered by sips of Powerades.

"Though Nepal is not mentioned by name, yet the ad will generate tremendous publicity for Nepal," said Bal Kishan Gurung, brand manager with ITC joint venture Surya Nepal, a prime sponsor of football tourneys in the Himalayan kingdom.

"People will be curious to know where the ad was shot, who the players are. The fresh interest will help tourism and Nepal should exploit this opportunity."

So far, only four Asian countries have made it to the World Cup in the conventional way - Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The Nepali national football team is yet to make it to the qualifying rounds.

However, it has begun on a victorious note, defeating India's formidable East Bengal club 2-0 last month and going to the AFC Challenge Cup in Dhaka, where they beat Bhutan 2-0 in the opening match Sunday.

Source :

http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=36638

think about the downside. even the most remote and anceint villages, untouched by western influence thus far, are not spared by cocacola...kinda pathetic.

I was like woah! Maybe in cricket?

Oh well... does not hurt to dream!

And oh yeah, I, for one, would rather focus on the bright side.

"....yet the ad will generate tremendous publicity for Nepal."
Hope this in fact does come true!

IndisGuise:)

There is no downside to it , don't be so pessimistic , why do we have to have a negetive side to everything, if this is true it is very good, nepal will get exposure, maybe more people will get aware of the things happening in our country and try and help. And there is no such thing like exploiting , that reagion is beautiful and we should be proud of it to show it to the world, why don't you look at it that way huh,

i am not being pessimistic or anything. i am just pointing a fact. i agree it is a good exposure for nepal, but it is just kind of sad. just the thought that one's unique cultures are hard to preserve and keep intact these days......what i am saying is everything comes at a price k. we might stand to gain benefit from the ad, tara we will also lose a little something in lieu.

This is awesome. 'was passing by after a long time and this news was heartening. Maybe I miss "home" today. I am picturing the picteresque Nepal shown world wide. And what is this about Africans football players in Nepal? Is it really true?

Cheeri -o!

I think we should ban all the vehicles, televisions, and computers (and so on) and cease to move on to 21st century. Not that we are moving in the right direction by leaps and bounds.

I still remember shedding my precious tear drops when I saw bottles of Coke and Fanta in Manakamana long time ago. I mean the place seemed somewhere in the middle of nowhere. And how I prayed that Manakamana Mata to TEACH THESE LOCALS TO PRESERVE THEIR (NOT MINE - MIND YOU) CULTURE. Can you imagine how exasperated I was when I heard they have a TV, no less, in one of the hotel? Jesus freaking Christ! Ops. . . I meant, Harey Manakamana Mai. . . :(


Those people, they did not know that they were not preserving their unique culture. Or was it just me, who is just habitually bound to unearth the downside in every nonexistent scenario? I never understood this one.

Oh well!!!

IndisGuise:)

P.S: NK, it's true. There were quite a few in numbers in different teams, but now they have their own team. I just hope they have some quota system in foreign players, lest Nepalese football would be negatively affected. (You know how they have it in Spain - Natra ta sabai African le khaihalcha)

i don't know why people are not understanding what i am saying...they never dooo in sajha anyways, so oh well. i never said lets not move on to 21st century. we need every bit of 21st century. what i am saying is while we might be getting western exposure, we are still losing one tiny bit of ourselves...u go to bhaktapur today, to all the temples, u will see coke and fanta and mirinda ads and what not, you go to patan darbarsquare and and changunaryan mandir and hanuman dhoka. ani the so-called freak street..when our skilled arhitects designed those temples and hoped to preserve it, i dont think they ever thought of a freek street. today where can i find something that is distincty nepali? something that is surrounded by only by a what i can call nepali? something that is still exactly the way it is? the same atmosphere?
i am not saying this is a bad thing this is only a side effect of westernization.......its the price we are paying. i never said lets not pay the price. i recognize there are many upsides to it, but since others had already mentioned it, i was just pinpointing a downside k. negatives are always more fun than assertives u know.

hm...kind of deviated..but what the hell.

We still have kept our unique culture in the shape of nepotism, corruption, feudalism and so on and so forth.

And dare I say, our country resembles a hell for many of the citizens. And by the looks of it, we as a Nepalese, are going to preserve it for a long time to come. So I am not worried. But then again, I am not others.

But I digress...

But heaven won't strike me, I presume.

IndisGuise:)

i was emphasizing one point and then u said something completely different..unrelated k. well, no matter what i feel, i stil hope we gain some sort of benefit from the coke ad.

Me too.

It's all good. It does not matter where we started, as long as we end up on 'almost' the same fence.

Coke khawo maast ho jawoo... :)

The intent of posting this thread was to Generate some enthu for the forthcoming Soccer worldcup. Sorry for letting the Cricket Fans down.

lfc123, just to let you know, making of Coke Ad in Nepal is a gesture of Respect for Nepalese Nature, not a commercializing propoganda. Coke for once thought of appreciating the scenary of Nepal, and show it round the world. I am sorry to read you think otherwise. I am fascinated to tell everyone that this ad was shot at my place. I feel its a respect to Nepal that coke has chosen to make an ad in Nepal for the Soccer Worldcup.

About the inclusion of the African Players, well Coke cannot obviously constrain itself to the Nepalese Players, and above all those player are from African United, which is a club in Nepal (Thats what I have read). These foreign player are playing in Nepal, gives a lot of boost to local players also. Imagine players (no matter what their talent levels are) are coming from Africa and playing in nepal, does not it make you feel prowd that they felt playing in Nepal was worth something? and mind you its not one or two, the whole team including the coach. Wow, things like these make me proud of what I come from. (The rest is disppointing but whatever.... talk bout the goodies and be happy).

hey give the girl( i think it's a she) a break , i was the first to criticize lfc123, but i see what she meant, but there is line between modenization and preserving our culture, i believe the Coke Ad will be an exposure of nepal's beauty and hopefully people will be interested in nepal and that is positive , but like she pointed out it is sad to go to national heritage site and see it all being turned to ruins, we hould preserve our history and culture/traditions but we should not stop to embrace the benifits of modern world, we should be able to do both of them an dthe question is hwre to draw the line and one does not have a negetive impact on other.

so guys just chill , enjoy coke, now i really wanna see that Ad bad.

Hey, thanks Indisguise for answering my curiosity. Interesting. I wonder how much Nepal is paying these players. Or is this a good will gesture :) from Africa?

And it is annoying the pop up saying, "thank you.. and blah blah" everytime you click on submit. San ley kaam payana kya ho.

That is really cool news!!! Nepali players in Coke ad and that tooo in Mustan wow!! its awesome!!!!

My best of luck to the Nepali players who r now playing AFC challange cup in Bangladesh.


I lop nepal and nepali football.........

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talkin abt Coke and Mustang, in my opinion there is nothin bad.. u know its GLOBALISATION........

Okay, better late than never!!

NK,

I think they are spillover effect from India. Indian soccer clubs have many foreigners plying their trade in various divisions. That in itself is not a surprising factor considering the fact the clubs out their can pay "10-20 lakhs" to many of their star players in a season.

Coupled with the understanding that Africa is not amongst the richest of the continent, my assumption is that they - the people of Africa - are constantly trying to move to different countries to earn their living. Better ones (players) heads to Europe and countries such as India gets the bottom of the pact. You can use your imagination on what our Nepali clubs would get.

Exactly!
The leftovers!!

But hey, they are as good or even better in many cases if one of my friends who play for national team (on and of) and a club is to be believed. I take his word for that.

I just know this side of the story. I am sure there could be various other reasons. I did play with couple of Africans many years back, thus I took the liberty of shed more info on this one than perhaps I should have. The local clubs paid them around 14-20 thousands Indian rupees.

Goodwill gesture from Africa?

If you would ask me, there is nothing that they can give us that we do not have. Polpot? Khmer Rouge? No thanks, we have our very own Pushpa Kamal dahal aka Prachanda. Forests, Jungles, culture, tradition et. al., we are on the verge of eroding, so who needs it?

Maybe our national zoo needs a pair of lion, eh? But I do not think Africans would be so cruel on the lions, what with the lions in our zoo appeared starving to death in very limited confinement. In case they do decide to send a pair for goodwill gesture; that should count as animal cruelty. My heart's already bleeding for those Lions. :)

Those lucky Nepali Rhinos that migrated to Austria - those lucky bastards!

And, we have people here in US, Europe and where not, trying to seek asylum. Maybe animals have better life eh'?

But I digress. Oh well!

Hota hein chalta hein duniya hein.

By the way did I answer you about those African footballers in Nepal? Or are ya already sleeping? LOL.

IndisGuise:)

Read as:

"That in itself is not a surprising factor considering the fact the clubs out there can pay "10-20 lakhs" to many of their star players in a season."

"..............my friends who plays for national............."

Ignore other typos. :O