I lived my whole life as football. I am grateful to football for not only introducing me, but giving me everything. Well football - there are ups and downs in life, there are successes and failures, there are joys and disappointments. However, I chose football. Football has given happiness in life.

Nobody would have known me if I had been in any other profession without playing football. Another name of life is discipline. And success is not something that can be achieved. I lost some, gained some. So I am satisfied with life, I have no complaints. 

I want Nepali football to get life even after my Sheikh. And let the country make tremendous progress in football. Even after my death, people will remember me for ages - I was a football player, I was a captain. That's enough for me. I am also thrilled to imagine how people will remember me later. I think - the media, Anuj, football fans will surely tell me that he was a good man and played well. 

He had a passion for football since childhood. I grew up in Dharan. Born in 2017, the Dharan that I saw as a teenager was sports-football. I have been playing since I was young - from football, table tennis to volleyball. However, one day I decided - I will focus on football. 

At that time Dharan's football was really very good. I never got to play for Dharan's main team better than that. My dream was to play in the main team of Dharan. However, I remained confined to Dharan's 'B' team. I still think, what would it be like to play for Dharan's main team? Dharan's football was really that strong. I didn't pay much attention to reading as it was just a game. Regret it.

players must read, not just the game. A player who reads is likely to have a better game. Father Sanukaji Shakya used to tell me to read. He himself could not read. The family was big, father was the sole breadwinner. So our family was just fine financially. Something more difficult happens. Father used to work in gold. I did too but I didn't get my hands on it. 

I gave SSLI in 032 and joined the campus. However, the studies stopped there. At that time, a news came in Dharan that the then Janakpur Cigarette Factory (Jachuka) was forming a football team and was looking for players for it. I decided to go there too. And, that's where football game life officially started. 

The football journey that started from Jachuka reached the national football team through various clubs. The two biggest successes of Nepali football are the first South Asian Games in 1984 and another edition of the same tournament in 1993. In both, Nepal won gold in men's football. I was a member of both those teams. In that sense, I am still both happy and proud to be a player associated with that success.

I played consecutively from the first South Asian Games to the sixth. Such an achievement has been achieved by very few. Not yet. All the memories associated with the national team are still fresh, I have kept them all alive. The achievement of representing any country is huge. It should not be associated with money. 

An incident connected with the 1993 South Asian Games still haunts me. It made me very sad at the time. I was the captain that day. The gold won by Nepal in the South Asian Games held in Dhaka, Bangladesh was the same, and that too was only handed to him at the end of the competition. 

'If you want to win that one gold, do this, do that'. Even after returning to Kathmandu, many assurances were received. Many political leaders said 'do this and do that'. However, nothing was accomplished. There was talk of giving me a permanent job in the then Royal Nepal Air Service Corporation. At that time, the corporation had its own football team. I was sure of getting that permanent job. But I didn't get it. This is one of the saddest events as a player.