By A Staff Reporter , Kathmandu, April , 5 : The national football team's newly appointed Head Coach Abdullah Almutairi of Kuwait aims to win the title of SAFF Championship and secure a spot at the third round of the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers.

Nepali football's governing body All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has appointed Pro license holder and AFC Coaching instructor Abdullah as a head coach for one year's term. 

Abdullah replaced Nepal’s one of the most successful coach Bal Gopal Maharjan. Latter was the acting head coach of the national football team. He won the Three Nations Cup title at home the tournament was held at Dasharath Stadium, Kathmandu on last Monday.

ANFA appointed Abdullah for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers 2022 remaining matches and the SAFF Championship. Abdullah will take a charge of the national squad for the remaining three matches of the World Qualifiers and the region's biggest footballing tournament SAFF Championship 2021 to be held in Bangladesh in September. 

The experienced Coach Abdullah arrived in Kathmandu on March 19. Coach Abdullah had looked after the U-23 team of Al-Shahania Football Club of Qatar, U-17 team of Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. 

Abdullah has been signed under the assistance of the Qatar Football Association (QFA). ANFA and QFA had signed an MoU regarding the development of the technical aspect of the game in 2018.

Addressing to press conference at ANFA Complex, Lalitpur on Sunday, Coach Abdullah was delighted to work as a head coach. “I am aiming to win the title of SAFF Champions. I also eye spot at the third round of Asian Qualifiers."

The level of all South Asian teams are almost equal but I will call 51 players for the first phase of the national team close-camp looking at three years' record."

Abdullah said he took this job as a challenge and hoped to make every Nepali supporter happy. "I watched the team performance during the Three Nations Cup. We have a good pool of players and hopefully, we can celebrate on more occasions with home fans,” Coach Abdullah added.

Head Coach Abdullah will most probably call the players for a close-camp on May 9th after finishing Nepal’s much-awaited franchises football tournament Nepal Super League to be held at Dasharath Stadium, Kathmandu from April 24th to May 8th.