Bal Gopal Maharjan (, born 28 August 1975) is a Nepali former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and current

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

. He was in the squad which won the historic

1993 South Asian Games The 1993 South Asian Games, officially the 6th South Asian Games, took place from December 20 to December 27, 1993, in Dhaka, Bangladesh and thus in SAF games history, Dhaka became the first city to host the event for second time. Participating ...

gold. After his retirement, Bal Gopal has been coaching different club and national Nepali teams.

Career

His major achievement during his playing career was the

gold medal. From 1991 to 1993, he played for

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...

club

Brothers Union Brothers Union () is a professional association football, football club based in Gopibagh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. It currently competes in the Bangladesh Premier League (football), Bangladesh Premier League, the top flight of Football in Bangladesh, ...

. He also appeared with

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

side

Mahindra United Mahindra United Football Club (formerly known as Mahindra & Mahindra) was an Indian professional football club based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Founded in 1962, the club competed in the I-League, then top tier of Indian football league system, bef ...

in 2001–02. After retirement, he started managerial career with

Three Star Club Three Star Club is a Nepali professional football club based in Lalitpur. The club was formed in 2031 BS (1974). Dinker Govinda Amatya, Lt. Krishna Charan Mishra, Lt. Kedar Lal Khosin, Rajkaji Lakhey, Motikaji Bajracharya and Lt. Mehbooh Khan are ...

. Maharjan led the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

to victory in the

2015 SAFF U-19 Championship The 2015 SAFF U-19 Championship was the 1st edition of the SAFF U-19 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-19 national teams organized by SAFF. The tournament was hosted by Nepal from 20–29 of August. Six teams fro ...

and again in

2016 Bangabandhu Cup The 2016 Bangabandhu Cup or 2016 Bangabandhu Gold Cup was an international association football tournament organised by the Bangladesh Football Federation as a tribute to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Launched in 1996, ...

. On 1 June 2016, Bal Gopal was appointed manager of

on a three-month contract, thus becoming the first Nepali to lead a top-tier club in another country. On 10 June 2018, he was appointed as the assistant coach of

Nepal national football team The Nepal national football team () represents Nepal in FIFA, International men's association football, football, and is governed by the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA). A member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Nepali footba ...

under head coach

Koji Gyotoku is a Japanese football manager and former football player. He is the currently head coach of Cambodia and Cambodia U23. Playing career Gyotoku was born January 28, 1965, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He went to school at Shizuoka Municipal Sh ...

ahead of

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games (), and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, were a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 August to 2 September 201 ...

. On 25 August 2018, he was appointed as the interim head coach of the national team from

, after the Japanese was entangled into

visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

issues. On 8 September 2018, Nepal defeated hosts

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

2–0 to enter the semifinals of

2018 SAFF Championship The 2018 SAFF Championship, also known as the 2018 SAFF Suzuki Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 12th edition of the SAFF Championship, the biennial international men's association football, football championship of South Asia organized by So ...

. He also won 2021 Three Nations Cup defeating

Statistics

Honours

Player

;

Bangladesh Federation Cup Federation Cup, also known as Bangladesh Federation Cup or simply Fed Cup , is Bangladesh's premier cup competition in men's association football. The competition started in 1980 and is run by the Bangladesh Football Federation which is responsib ...

(1): 1991 ;

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

* SAG Football (1):

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

Manager

; Nepal U20 *

SAFF U-20 Championship The SAFF U-18/U-19/U-20 Championship or SAFF Youth Championship is a biennial football championship for male footballers under the age of 20 and is organized by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The championship was held for the first tim ...

(1):

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

;

Bangabandhu Cup The Bangabandhu Cup, also known as the Bangabandhu Gold Cup, is an international football tournament organised by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) as a tribute to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who is the founding father of Banglad ...

(1):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Three Nations Cup The 4 Nations Cup is an annual women's ice hockey tournament, held between four major national teams in the sport; currently, these are Canada women's national ice hockey team, Canada, the United States women's national ice hockey team, United S ...

(1):

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

; Nepal U23 *

South Asian Games The South Asian Games is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among athletes from South Asia. The South Asia Olympic Council, which was formed in 1983, governs it. The Games consist of seven countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, N ...

(1):

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maharjan, Bal Gopal Living people Nepal national football team managers 1975 births Footballers from Kathmandu Nepalese football managers South Asian Games gold medalists for Nepal South Asian Games silver medalists for Nepal South Asian Games medalists in football Medalists at the 1993 South Asian Games Medalists at the 1999 South Asian Games Asian Games footballers for Nepal Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games Nepalese expatriate sportspeople in Bangladesh Men's association football forwards Nepalese men's footballers Nepalese expatriate football managers Brothers Union players Brothers Union managers Expatriate football managers in Bangladesh Nepalese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Bangladesh Expatriate men's footballers in India Ranipokhari Corner Team players Muktijoddha Sangsad KC players Mahindra United FC players Three Star Club players Nepal men's international footballers