Stephen and the Media

Soccernet.com

Constantine: After Nepal I'm ready for anything
By Daniel King

Sunday, June 10, 2001

Soccernet columnist Stephen Constantine knows that no matter who gives him his dream break in English football nothing will ever match the incredible highs and tragic lows of his association with Nepal.

Less than two years ago the Londoner was hugging Crown Prince Dipendra in the middle of a football field, the manager of the national team and the heir to the throne celebrating the greatest day in Nepal's football history.

Now the traumatic events in Kathmandu have left Dipendra and nine members of the Royal Family, including his parents, the King and Queen, dead. Dipendra shot them after a family row over his intended marriage and then turned a gun on himself.

Constantine, 38, is 'horrified and upset' by what has happened but his football memories of Nepal are happy ones. He was appointed coach in July 1999 and took them to the final of the South Asian Federation Games. It was after the 2-1 semi-final win over The Maldives that Dipendra broke with royal protocol.

Constantine recalled: 'The crowd parted like the Red Sea and Dipendra came through to hug me in front of 50,000 people.' Nepal lost 1-0 to Bangladesh in the final but Constantine received the country's equivalent of an OBE.

He said: 'I feel that if I can succeed in an environment that is completely alien then I can do it in England.'

So far, clubs here do not agree, even though he is one of only two Englishmen on FIFA's elite band of coaches, the Instructors' Panel.

Constantine, a junior at Millwall and Chelsea before a playing career in America, said: 'All I want is a chance to prove myself. I am just waiting for the right chairman to realize my potential.'

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