But what nature provides, unless nurtured, in most cases cannot lead to much. Maharjan, however, struck it lucky on the nurturing department too. First, he found in his father, Hare Ram Maharjan, the perfect cheerleader to chaperone him through his early playing days. Then when he was at the cusp of hitting his teenage years, in 1997, the All Nepal Football Academy Project took over the job of nurturing him.
Maharjan’s skills bloomed at the academy, and from here on, his story was one of unending success: in 1999, he was part of the U-14 Nepali team that won the Subroto Mukerjee Cup; in 2003, he joined the big leagues with Friend’s Club picking him for their team; in that very year, he represented Thimi in the first Metro cup, a tournament in which he won the highest scorer’s title and a cash prize of Rs 50,000. Since then the midfielder has shone on both the national and the international stage: even when he jumped ship, leaving Friend’s Club for Three Star, in 2004, he won the “A” Division league title with his team; he has garnered the title of the best midfielder in the Nepali league; he has gotten picked for the national team; overall, he has had a dream career. So meteoric has been the path that he has charted that it once seemed lady luck would never desert him.
Anjan KC & Pradeep Maharjan.Republica
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Then May 17, 2008 rolled around. The place was Thailand; the game, a friendly match with a second division Thai club, Bangkok Glass. It was a friendly match, where the competition is toned down a bit, but for once, Maharjan came up unlucky on the field. As Maharjan tried to land on his feet after he’d soared to head the ball, he made awkward contact with the ground and in the process tore a ligament on his right knee. As he lay slumped on the ground, he was in pain, but his initial thoughts were that he would be up and running in a matter of minutes. Little did he know that he would have to be carted off the field, and later, to hospital.
If Maharjan had sustained such an injury here at home in Nepal, the injury would have meant an end to his footballing career. In fact, there have been Nepali players who’ve had to call it a day after suffering such injuries in Nepal. But even during a time when he’d been stricken with the worst luck he’d ever had on the field, lady luck still found a way to pull for Maharjan: for Maharjan soon found himself convalescing in a ward at Bangkok’s Sirinfone Hospital, which had a team of excellent doctors who could put his knee back together.
He’d later need to take off a year from competitive football, but at least the Thai doctors saw to it that Maharjan wouldn’t need to switch careers.
Furthermore, the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) also came to Maharjan’s aid: it contributed three hundred thousand rupees for his medical expenses. After Maharjan returned to Kathmandu, three weeks later, he continued his treatment at Kathmandu Medical College, Sinamangal. He has now completed five months of physiotherapy and two months work out at the gym. The going has been slow: it took him two walks to start walking, six months to get jogging, and a full eight months before he could kick around a football, with his shoes encased in a pair of sneakers, not football boots. Because his knee is still a little delicate, he’s been advised not to lace on boots because football boots have cleats, which make them less stable than sneakers. Maharjan says he’ll take to wearing boots only after he’s paid a visit to Goddess Bajrabarahi.
Many people visit the goddess when they start on a new venture. Maharjan is starting a new phase in his career, one where it remains to be seen whether the goddesses who bring luck will be as generous with him as they were before. To get back to the football pitch, he’s worked his tail off through his recovery. But to find his form of old, a little bit of the old luck would help too.
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