Among scarcity, we found one die-hard Nepal Police Club (NPC), former Mahendra Police Club (MPC), fan in Pokhara during the Sixth Aaha Gold Cup. He never played football himself but rarely misses a game of Nepal Police Club. 37-year old Subash Rai of Dharan is a British Gurkha soldier. He is presently deputed as a commander at the British Gurkha Camp in Kathmandu. Every police player calls him Subash Dai (elder brother) with a lot of respect.

As a student of Mahendra Multiple Campus in Dharan, he was attracted to politics and gained some prominence as a candidate for student union president from Nepal Student's Union. He was a big fan of police football right from the time and even wanted to join the police service. After having passed the exam for a police inspector, all off a sudden he changed his mind and joined the British Army. But that was not the end to his craze for NPC.

Once when he was returning home during holiday, the Buda Subba Gold Cup was in full swing in his home town Dharan. He hired a local brass-band party at the stadium to cheer for the police team. Most of the locals branded him as football crazy.

Subash says his liking for police team must have been fueled by his family's affiliation to police service. Most of his family members and relatives are serving in Nepal Police. The contemporary of former MPC skipper Dev Narayan Chaudhary rates Hari Khadka and, of late, Ju Manu Rai as the best players. In the sixth edition of the Aaha Gold Cup in Pokhara, expectedly Subash did not miss a single NPC match.

He was scheduled to return Kathmandu after the semifinals but stayed there saying, "How can I leave before seeing the police team lift the title." When the policemen were trailing 1-2 against the host Sahara Club in the semifinal, he looked more concerned than NPC coach Birat Krishna Shrestha. And when his team won the title, there was no bound to his happiness. He threw a party, opened champagne bottles and celebrated the win.

Even during last year's league, he did not miss a match of NPC till he was in Kathmandu. Before leaving for England, he had claimed that the policemen would lift the title and Hari Khadka would bag the car for best player. That turned out to be true but sadly the biggest police fan was not there to celebrate. 

He also avidly follows English football. His favorite Premiership clubs are Manchester United and Liverpool. Rooney, Beckham and Ronaldo (Christiano) are his favorite players. 

In his private life, Rai is married to Rina Rai of Dharan. He is a proud father of a baby girl. He plans to reenter into active Congress politics after retirement. He is also the advisor to the Nepal Relation Committee in the UK. He has very good relations with top leaders of Nepali Congress. Rai likes Gagan Thapa and Pradeep Paudel among the young generation leaders.

SoccerAgeNepal fortnightly