Former Bundesliga player's sabbatical in Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nov 14: While most Germans were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall, Germany´s former national football player Harald Braner was busy sightseeing at the Mt Everest He had come to Nepal along with his family on November 6. [break]

After his brief sabbatical to the mountains, he was at Thamel´s Caravan Garden on Wednesday with former Nepali U-19 players. The former Nepali players had visited Germany in 1993 for a month-long training.

“Football doesn´t need any language, it unites all languages,” Braner said, while distributing jersey to the players of the 1993 team.

Braner is the one who played international matches for West Germany from 1964 to 1973 alongside well-known footballer like Franz Beckenbauer. His international football career ended quite early due to an accident.

“Unimaginable! I had never imagined such a thing. It was really the world´s largest chunk of snow lying in front of me,” Braner who viewed Mt Everest earlier this week told myrepublica.com. This is the first time he visited Nepal along with his wife Karen, a psychiatric, and son Frank who holds a PhD degree.

The Braner family has been active social workers in the Indian state of Kerala since last year. The family had reached South India in March last year to support a childcare center established in Tamil Nadu by Frank´s friend Gerdy Gutperla. Frank is busy imparting education to the children, while Braner teaches them football. Karen, for her part, counsels the children.

In the recent days, Braner has been training the youth teams of Kerala, Kochi and Trivandrum under the support of Indian Football Association. Braner has been attracted towards Nepal after his visit to the Everest region. He said that he is willing to work in Nepal if All Nepal Football Association invites him. “I won´t deny if I get an invitation,” said Braner who has played Bundesliga for five years from the renowned German club FC Kaiserslautern.

Braner is a FIFA ´A´ license holder coach and has been coaching since 31 years. He has coached well-known clubs like Hamburg and Kaiserslautern.

Braner watched Nepali football at the Dasharath Stadium on Sunday maintaining a low profile. He said he became close to Nepal through his friend Holger Overman. “Overman had informed me of a lot of nice things about Nepal,” he said. He now agrees with Overman after his one-week stay in Nepal. “Nepali people are really warm-hearted,” he said.

Meanwhile, the beauty of Annapurna region astounded Frank. He felt that he had reached a place of two centuries ago when he saw the habitation of the region. “There is a vast gap between city and village,” he said while parting. He returned to Germany on Thursday taking with him his most memorable moments of watching sunrise from Pokhara´s Sarangkot.