Maidstone’s Bivesh Gurung: ‘In Nepal I was the talk of the town. It is surreal’
Maidstone’s progress to the third round of the FA Cup after beating Barrow was celebrated far and wide, from Kent to Kathmandu. The winning goal came from Bivesh Gurung, a local lad born to Nepali parents, making him a hometown hero and boosting his popularity 4,500 miles away.
There was frustration for Gurung after his superbly hit winner when he missed the next tie against Stevenage through suspension but he will be back for Saturday lunchtime’s fourth-round trip to Ipswich, which will be watched with interest in Nepal.
“When I signed at Crystal Palace as a 16-year-old, my aunt in Nepal called to say she saw me on TV just for signing for the academy – and that was just the academy,” Gurung says. “It was the same for the FA Cup: they [his family] were saying that they kept seeing my face on TV screens and I was the talk of the town. It is all a bit surreal but amazing at the same time.”
Gurung’s parents settled in Kent after his father’s time as Gurkha in the British army. An estimated 50,000 Nepalis are in the UK but Gurung is yet to come across one on the pitch, although Kiban Rai, another UK-born son of a Gurkha, became the first player of Nepali descent to sign a professional contract in the EFL after progressing through the ranks at Newport County in League Two.
Gurung has international ambitions and has been in contact with the Nepali football authorities but is yet to commit. At the moment it is not possible to be a dual national but that may change this year. “I feel really proud representing Nepali people and younger people, like my cousins, who look up to me as a role model, seeing that it is not the conventional pathway someone might take in our culture,” Gurung says. “I try to show them that you follow whatever you love doing.”
According to Gurung, who has Alevels in maths and economics, parents in south Asian families often do not see a career in football. “My parents – and whole family – have been amazing,” he says. “They see how much work I put into it, how much it means to me, and when they see their child they think: ‘How can we take football away from him?’ They have tried to encourage and support me in every way they can to help my career. At the same time, they said to me during GCSEs and scholarship times at Crystal Palace to always have a back-up plan.”
Gurung began his youth career with Maidstone before joining Palace. When released by Palace he left for Scandinavia to play in the lower tiers in Norway and Sweden over two seasons to aid his development as a full-time professional on a circuitous route back to his home town.
Maidstone are the lowest-ranked club left in the FA Cup. They sit fourth in the National League South under the guidance of the former Wolves defender George Elokobi, who knows what it is like to progress from non-league, having started his playing career with Dulwich Hamlet before rising to the Premier League. Elokobi is in his first managerial role and has needed a little luck and help from Gurung to progress to this tie.
“I saw my number go up against Barrow, I was clapping the fans and walking over to the bench, then all of a sudden our striker Sol [Wanjau-Smith] was struggling with his ankle, so I stayed on the pitch,” says Gurung. “It was lucky; everything was aligned for me to have that moment 10 minutes later. After the game, he [Elokobi] was buzzing and laughing along with me.”
Gurung is not a prolific goalscorer, needing words of encouragement from his mother. “When I am getting dropped off for a game, my parents are always in the car giving me some pointers – one of the main ones is always to shoot more,” Gurung says. “‘If you don’t shoot, you don’t score,’ and I had that in mind, especially because I hadn’t had a shot in that game.”
There is experience within the Maidstone ranks, in Gavin Hoyte, who played one Premier League game for Arsenal and has faced Lionel Messi with Trinidad and Tobago; Reiss Greenidge, who spent time playing in Norway; and Lucas Covolan, a former Brazil Under-20s goalkeeper. It is an eclectic bunch for a sixth-tier side.
The Ipswich game is Maidstone’s seventh in the competition. It will be a difficult task against a Championship side aiming for back-to-back promotions but Maidstone have already eliminated two EFL teams.
“No one would have expected us to get to the fourth round but we believed in the camp,” says Gurung. “There is a real buzz going around the place. On Saturday one of the pickup points before the game was the ground and you could see all the people queueing up to buy their tickets for the Ipswich game – the queue did not seem to stop. The support has been surreal. Our away section sold out within a couple of hours, showing that everyone is really excited about it.”
There will be 4,480 in the away end at Portman Road but potentially 30 million more thousands of miles away hoping Maidstone can do the unthinkable again.